Here at the Send Me Your Ears Studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from Michael Barrow & The Tourists. One Track Mind is a stunning track from a band that was new to us today but has shot straight to the top of our “ones to watch” list.
Michael Barrow & The Tourists are Michael Barrow (vocals, guitar), Zach Collier (keyboards), Reed Perkins (drums), and Alessandro Improta (bass).
One Track Mind grabs your attention right from the very first beat. Four-on-the-floor drums and bright Bruce Hornsby-style piano fill your ears and you can’t help but be swept along by this quality performance. Guitar and bass join the mix before dropping out to make space for the vocals.
The first verse drops back to that gorgeous and powerful drumbeat with a beautiful running 8s bass line. Vocally, we were blown away. Barrow’s voice is clear, powerful and passionate. There are some superb vibrato notes in his voice and we liked that the breaths between lines are audible, helping to impart extra energy and emotion into the song.
The creativity in this track is quite astounding. The rise and fall create a superbly dynamic soundscape, but the changes up in the drums and instrumentation add an extra dimension that many artists gloss over. The all-important second verse makes fantastic use of toms and super-subtle additional instrumentation, and the layered vocals in the choruses are a great touch, too.
The build into the guitar solo is to die for, and the solo itself has well-considered note choices and plenty of space. We loved the doubled-up drums in the chorus towards the end and honestly, we loved everything about this track.
Ideas from our ears
The production on this track is top quality and easily keeps the listener engaged throughout the song. To our ears. we would have liked to hear the kick and snare popping through a little more in the choruses. Some heavier compression on these mics and maybe a couple of small boosts around 50Hz and 170Hz could help with this. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
It is rare for us to be so overwhelmingly impressed by an artist, but Michael Barrow and The Tourists have stolen our hearts today. Highly recommended.
https://michaelbarrowandthetourists.com/
https://www.facebook.com/michaelbarrowmusic/
https://twitter.com/mb_and_tourists
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1mhe70fSiQDyc16JVlhBUE?si=Sd7asJQZT5a3AXDbodWIMA&dl_branch=1
https://soundcloud.com/mbandthetourists
https://michaelbarrowandthetourists.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHIZ6mN1eJi0oSwNF4NihUA
https://www.instagram.com/michaelbarrowandthetourists/