MonkeyRat ft. Anna Sofía Skoradal have a new song out, The Child. A beautiful breathy and jazzy number. We’ve been having a listen here today at Send Me Your Ears.
Lead vocalist, Anna Sofía Skoradal absolutely carries this song with her classy jazz vocals. We were utterly blown away by Skoradal’s voice, especially her depth and control in the low notes. There were hints of Nina Simone or Ella Fitzgerald in places. Also reminded in places of Silje Nergaard – especially on her version of the song Be Still My Heart.
The Child is a really unique and exciting dream pop/ jazz crossover. There’s some great development throughout the song which helps maintain interest in the listener. The chord sequence is just slightly out of the ordinary enough to keep you on your toes and capture your attention and the breathiness in the beautiful vocals just wash over you.
There’s some fairly sparse synth bass throughout the song which works well and takes no attention away from the vocals, whilst also filling out the sound nicely.
Just when you think you may be starting to get the hang of where the song will develop, you come across a pan pipes (we think!) solo. And what a solo! This just floated us away and gave us goosebumps all at the same time. A nice touch to have the solo predominantly in the right speaker – it just seems to add to the individuality of the track.
The song’s theme is one of losing the inner child and seems to come from a poem written many years ago that has been turned into a song. Its sad but empowering all at the same time and we have fallen in love with this artist.
A well produced song that we personally feel could use a slight shelf in the top end of the overall track to bring out just a touch more brightness in the reverbs. Perhaps a narrow boost at 70Hz and a narrow cut at 55Hz will even out the bass and kick frequencies a little more.
The Child is a beautiful and extremely distinctive piece of poetry set to music. If you like quality jazzy vocals with a modern twist on production and instrumentation then you’ll love MonkeyRat ft. Anna Sofía Skoradal