Pembroke, (US), band, The Freight, have just released the lead single, Overrated, from their forthcoming album and we here at the Send Me Your Ears studio are here to tell you to stop what you’re doing and take a listen right now!!
The moment the song starts, all of us here, in unison, shouted “Oh YEAH!”.
A quick drum fill leads immediately a full band sound. A great rocking feel with a definite 90s rock feel.
When the vocals come in, the instrumentation drops back nicely, leaving space for lead vocalist, Adam Tiro, to bring in some gorgeous gravelly Bryan Adams sounding vocals. As the first verse progresses, it builds nicely with added instrumentation before blasting into the chorus with some great backing vocals. There’s also some really well used 16 beat tambourine in the choruses to help separate each section even more.
The rise and fall throughout this track really is something. Dropping back again for the second verse but easily maintaining interest with some well crafted drum patterns and a lovely running bassline.
The chorus of Overrated is super-catchy! Easily something that fans will get their teeth into and join in. This is a band that we think would really nail it on the live circuit.
The piano solo is a nice touch, and the way the song was building before it, made us assume we were building to a big guitar solo. The piano gives it a touch of extra class and we love how the song drops right back in the breakdown after the solo with some lovely incidental guitar between the vocal lines.
Overrated is a song about a relationship that you’ve been desperate to work, but it just isn’t. “Love is overrated.” Great theme!
Our opinions on production are that there is quite a lot of rumble in the sub bass area so a hi pass set around 35Hz would allow the rest of the low end to breathe a little more. A low shelf boost below around 250Hz would add some extra depth and warmth with an extra boost around 130Hz to 140Hz to bring the those excellent bass guitar lines in a little more. A cut around 200Hz would bring the tuned note of the snare drum down a little. There is a peaking frequency in places around 700Hz so a cut there would control that. A small high shelf boost in the top two octaves would add to the brightness of the track with a small cut around 8kHz to avoid boosting the sibilance in the vocal track too much. Finally, a light compressor with some make up gain to add a little more warmth and overall volume would bring the song more in line with other commercial releases. These are minor changes to our own ears. This is already a superb song that has a great deal of commercial appeal.
The Freight were a new name to us today, but based on their single, Overrated, they are most definitely an act that we will be watching out for. This is fantastic stuff!