Listening to the dulcet tones of Gavin Doyle’s latest single, Realign, its hard not to feel swept along by the positivity and hope that explodes out of the speakers at you.
Doyle’s Irish accent is strong in Realign and there’s something really rather charming about it. Many vocalists will resort to a slight American twang in their voice, partly to be more universally appealing and partly because American pronunciation of vowels is simply easier to sing. Doyle’s accent comes through clearly here and it really adds to the individuality and beauty of this song.
The powerful message of hope is positively infectious. It almost sounds like a big winning Eurovision song, or the first song an X factor winner would release. Its almost victorious in its relentless optimism. Comparing Realign in any other way to Eurovision would be a disservice to Doyle though. This is not a cheesy Euro song. This is an upbeat and empowering anthem.
The chorus is super catchy and you’ll find yourself joining in by the second time it comes around. There’s a little breakdown with mostly just vocals that builds majestically back into the chorus again. The double vocals and layered vocals all help to make this feel anthemic.
Realign sits firmly in a kind of folk rock genre. Its a nice radio friendly length and we would expect it to be picked up by local stations around Dublin and possibly BBC Introducing. Doyle would be well advised to pitch this to folk-centered radio shows, and with its strong message of hope, Realign is definitely a contender for sync licensing.
From our own perspective, there’s a couple of production changes that we’d suggest. The bass and kick drum are occupying the same frequency space, resulting in a slightly muddy low end. A narrow cut around 50-60Hz should take out a little of the boom in the low end. We’d also suggest a cut around 700-800Hz to balance out a few boxy frequencies, as well as a top 3 octaves shelf boost to add some brightness into the overall track. The vocals felt just a little lost in the busier sections of the song, and we felt it was a shame to lose this superb characterful voice. The EQ changes suggested should counteract this.
We absolutely love this happy, upbeat and motivating song from Gavin Doyle. This comes at a time when the world truly needs this kind of optimism and we’re looking forward to hearing this song on the radio!