North Carolina (US) artist, Jennifer Alvarado, has just released her latest single today (October 7 2022), Catfish, and we here at the Send Me Your Ears studio have been taking a few listens today.
Catfish is a fun country/pop song that, lyrically, is intended to call out the wannabe Casanova that is really just looking to break hearts. The song is about someone trying to “catfish” their way into someone’s heart by pretending to be something they clearly are not.
With authentic country instrumentation and some lovely banjo work, Catfish is the kind of track that should appeal to both pop and country fans. There are moments that the track has some modern pop stylings and there’s some really well executed silences that make the return to the choruses even more exhilarating.
Lyrically, this is a clever song, did we spot a nod to the song “fishin’ in the dark”? Alvarado has a good range in her vocals and a definite country twang in the higher notes which serves her well to cut through, especially in the choruses. Her voice has an authenticity to it for this style of music. Although the vocal styles are different, this reminded us a little of Sarah John’s style of writing – for example, “The One In The Middle”.
The repeated chorus to end works well, and the song builds and builds momentum each time it comes around with more and more added vocal lines. This really is a great example of pop country with just a hint of rock. It already feels familiar as soon as it starts – as if you’ve heard it before. We can imagine this song working well on college radio in the US and internet country stations around the world.
Catfish has a brief, but well executed, electric guitar solo, just after a little kick drum led breakdown. The guitar solo builds back into the chorus and by this time, we guarantee you’re singing along.
From a production perspective, to our ears the snare is a little muddy around 200Hz so a surgical EQ dip around here would help to make it clearer. The vocal track sounds a little ‘boxy’ in places so a cut around 400Hz would help to reduce those tones. Also there is the occasional ‘honky’ tone so a cut around 900Hz-1kHz should help to reduce those peaks. The whole track could sound a little brighter and more balanced overall with a high shelf boost in the top two octaves.
Clearly an extremely ambitious artist, Alvarado already has a string of impressive awards to her name, we’re looking forward to hearing much more! For fans of rock/pop/country this is one for your playlist!.