Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the debut single from South Carolina band, Five Door Sedan. Darlin’ You was released on October 21st, 2022, and is a catchy and funky jazz-leaning indie rock song that effortlessly spans several genres.
Five Door Sedan is a brand new project fueled by Berklee Online School of Music, where both the writers (Lead Singer Dacota Muckey and Producer Michael Bruner) attend. Unsurprisingly, for a band put together of Berklee students, the quality and musicianship here are undeniable.
Darlin’ You is a love song for people who are addicted to toxic relationships. In the words of the band, “Dacota had a roommate who was always fighting with his girlfriend. They would get drunk and get physical and get the cops called, or one of them would go out and cheat on the other…but they’d always find their way back to each other with some sort of naive passion. It seemed as if they loved each other not in spite of the dysfunction and toxicity but actually because of it.”
Darlin’ You has effortless, laid-back vocals at the start, with some super funky jazzy guitar riffs that build into a full band sound with keys, bass and drums added in. The track has a live feel to it, with the vocals sounding chilled out (they did mention that they took ice baths between takes!)
The rise and fall within this track is managed superbly. The listener always has something grabbing their attention. There are some fantastic breakdown sections here with some great stereo in the breakdown guitars.
Lyrically, we loved this too! The song tells a cautionary tale of toxic and addictive relationships. We liked the line “…see your heart right through your shirt.”
The rise and fall continue, and the swirling keys will definitely grab your attention with their Minimoog-like modulating pitch bends.
An alto sax solo will steal your heart towards the end of the song, with the saxophonist having clearly been given free rein to improvise over a very creative and unpredictable chord progression. The solo has some jazz leanings and beautiful little licks and is extremely well-constructed. We particularly liked the attention to detail at the end of the solo, where the bass line follows the solo for the last few notes.
Ideas from our ears
The production is amazing on this track, as we expected it would be! To our ears, the low end may be a little ‘boomy’ around 55Hz. Also, a single-band compressor in the top 2 octaves with some make-up gain could increase the overall brightness a little. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Five Door Sedan have come out all guns firing with their debut single, Darlin’ You. This is a stunning debut from a band who have instantly grabbed our attention. We’re looking forward to hearing more! Highly recommended.
https://www.fivedoorsedan.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/33TUJ8TqYQq6PyZEagVN0y
https://soundcloud.com/five-door-sedan/darlin-you
https://www.youtube.com/@fivedoorsedan
https://www.instagram.com/fivedoorsedan/