We previously reviewed Paul Vinson’s track, Drama Queen, and he’s back today with his latest single, Keep Up. We’ve been listening to this talented Nashville artist here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
The first thing that struck us about Keep Up is that it displayed a remarkable versatility in Vinson’s work. Drama Queen is more of a glam rock style track, whereas Keep Up is a gentle, almost country/Americana style track. He does both extraordinarily well.
Keep Up is a song dedicated to the tragic loss of an old classmate of Vinson’s to suicide. The lyrics meander through Vinson’s thoughts and his classmate’s thoughts. In Vinson’s words; “The agony of existential and religious trauma covered
our hometown like a blanket, and our classmates’ participation in those beliefs often affected our own mental health.”
Keep Up starts gently on some lovely picked acoustic country style guitar, the vocals come in fairly quickly and, as with Drama Queen, the full band sound comes in fairly swiftly after this. Apart from Vinson’s warm and compelling vocals, this is where the comparison ends though. The versatility in songwriting and performance is a joy to see here, and it is very much making us look forward to future developments in Vinson’s future.
There’s some lovely reverbs on the vocals and the occasional harmonies are done to perfection.
The repeated riff on piano really serves to draw the listener in and make them truly feel part of the experience.
We love the great live sound of the drums with some interesting rhythms, fills and stops and the tremolo guitar panned left is a really nice touch to help maintain interest throughout the song.
The middle 8 section is interesting with a huge change up in reverbs, almost cathedral style and different drum patterns, before dropping back to a gentler section, followed again by that gorgeous repeated riff on piano.
From a production perspective, there is a resonance in the acoustic guitar which is most noticeable during the exposed part of the intro. An accurate notch out at 170Hz would deal with this. The production on this track is quite exquisite and we enjoyed it from start to finish.
Paul Vinson is showing himself to be an exceptionally versatile and talented performer and songwriter. This latest heartfelt track from him is simply stunning. We urge you to add “Keep Up” to your playlist now!