One of the Send Me Your Ears team’s favourites is Nashville based, Paul Vinson. We were excited to see this talented and versatile artist reach the top of our reviews pile again today. His latest single, I Can’t Go On (Without You), is yet another stunning example of Vinson’s quality writing and performance.
I Can’t Go On comes straight in with those vocals of Vinson’s that we’ve always been impressed by. His voice has just the right touch of gravel in all the right places and the falsetto moments in this track are sung to perfection. Every time we hear this artist, we are astounded at the versatility of both songwriting and vocal performance.
Lyrically, this is an interesting track. The verses focus on politics and religion and our own mental struggles, whilst the choruses remind us of what’s actually important in our lives; the people we love and care about.
The song starts with a stripped down feel to it. Vinson’s voice carries the track over some great electric guitar strums and a lovely simple head-nodding drum beat.
I Can’t Go On has some quite wonderful development in it. By the time you reach the end of the track, you realise just how much instrumentation and extras have been added. Hit replay and you’ll realise just how much its developed.
I Can’t Go On has some lovely panned electric guitars and lots of things happening. The rise and fall is done to perfection and the track easily maintained our interest for several listens. In fact, we’re all still humming it now!
We love the simple and minimal guitar solo. It is done to perfection. It isn’t there to steal the show, it’s there to add to the overall excitement in the track. It has a slightly synthy sound to it and reminded us of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Love Don’t Always Come Easy” in its simplicity and effectiveness.
From a production perspective, a boost in the low mids centred around 250Hz would give a little more warmth and depth in that area. A cut in the area around 600-700Hz would reduce the occasional boxy/honky tone. To our ears the track could use a little boost around 3kHz for definition as well as a small high shelf boost in the top two octaves just for a little extra brightness and clarity. As always with this artist, the song doesn’t “need” anything. It is already a well crafted track that keeps the listener engaged throughout.
Paul Vinson has produced yet another hit with his track, I Can’t Go On (Without You). Vinson is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with on the Indie Rock music scene, consistently releasing quality catchy tracks. An impressive artist.