For fans of Green Day, Blink 182 and 90s era indie rock, look no further than Ollie Twohill’s latest release, Silk Dress. This song is due for release on February 24 2022.
This is a really well written, well produced song that develops nicely throughout. At just over 3 minutes 30 it fits perfectly into that golden “radio friendly” length.
There’s some lovely rise and fall throughout the track that manages to maintain the listeners interest. I like how by the time you get to the (extremely catchy) chorus, you’re into the full band sound with some expertly played instrumentation.
I’m particularly impressed by the drummer’s creativity. Drums and bass are played by Blair and Lawson Hamilton, respectively. I like the half time feel in the drums at about 1m10s and the snare driven double chorus at the end of the song.
The drums are recorded well with some lovely stereo effects and some really classy toms playing in places.
Just when you think you can’t be any more impressed, the Brian May-esque guitar solo comes in and steals the show. This is really virtuoso playing and performance. A great choice of notes and tone.
After the guitar solo, there’s so much happening that I felt the vocals were just a little lost. Perhaps a little more compression would help here.
The one drawback I have on this song which almost made me turn it down for review is the introduction on solo acoustic guitar. The two G notes played on different strings are off-putting as one of them is about 20 cents sharp. Once the full track comes in, I was blown away, but its this kind of attention to detail that takes songs from great to world class. Silk Dress is most of the way there to being a really really radio friendly song and for me this really was the only thing that detracted for me.
So many artists right now are writing songs about following their dreams, and whilst Ollie Twohill is no exception, he has managed to write a “follow-your-dreams” song that really speaks to the listener. Great lyrics. Work hard and show up and you’re in with a chance. I love this.
We give this song four ears out of five
