Marcus Liuzzi – One Horse Town (Single Review)

Today’s review features Marcus Liuzzi’s new single “One Horse Town.”

Marcus Liuzzi is a singer-songwriter living outside Boston, Massachusetts. He wrote his first pop song at 15 and has played professionally in several bands throughout the years. Most recently, he stopped touring and chose to focus more on songwriting & recording.

Marcus has been a multi-instrumentalist since he was in his mid-teens and plays guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. Marcus’ music is pure pop/rock with occasional country influences and typically features a blend of retro-meets-modern in sound, style, and performance. His latest single, One Horse Town, features Dave Croce playing the guitar solo. The track was mastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio.

So let’s have a listen …

The song starts slowly, with a guitar strumming in the background. The lyrics and vocals are sort of straightforward, matching the beat. Drums enter, a very straight-up drum beat. I’m liking the electric slide guitar soloist that sticks his head out occasionally in the mix. When the song hits the chorus, though, most of the instruments are way down in the mix, and it sounds a little bit hollow. The guitar solo at 3:01 has way too much reverb on it and sounds overly compressed. The vocals are very straight up on the beat and tend to lack melody enhancements. The vocalist is talking more through the song, rather than singing.

Overall, the recording quality and production on this song are not up to par. Also, the vocalist is talk-singing through the song in a very straight, predictable way, which lessens the appeal of the song. I would rework the lyrics and delivery of the vocals to be more melodic and interesting.

SCORE/Mediocre: Marcus Liuzzi’s new single “One Horse Town” needs work. Recording and production flaws dampen the appeal of the song as do the straight-up on the beat talk-singing vocal delivery. This song needs a lot more work before it can be re-released. Much love, Beth

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

Check Marcus out on his Official Website!