Matt DeAngelis – Helpless To The Fire (Single Review)

‘Helpless to the Fire’ is the new single by Matt DeAngelis. There’s a mix of drumming – a steady and steely drum strike that plays throughout the song, plus some light percussive drumming. In the mix is a lead guitar that seems to be accompanied at times by crunchy guitar. The lead guitar provides a melodic streak in the arrangement, which rises nicely at times, giving the song some agency and energy. In that regard, instrumentally, the song is light but rises as it goes – perhaps best described as dynamic instrumentation. 

What’s even lighter are the singer’s vocals: I thought it was a woman singing the first few times I listened to the song, but just as the instrumentation (if that’s not a stretch) rises, the vocals gain some masculine energy as the song progresses. 

‘Sunny days like these are hard to come by’ are the vocals when the song starts – sung in that very light, almost feminine, voice I was talking about. ‘The wind is blowing harder than it has ever before’, we hear soon after, which reminds me that in the artist’s info, the singer describes himself as a lover of weather. So it’s no wonder that in his song, there’s talk of the wind and fire.  Then later on, we hear him sing, ‘I’m helpless to the fire’. 

But the song is not only about audible words. Vocally, there’s also some non-lexical singing going on.

SCORE/Excellent: This is a beautiful little song, I wanna say, and it is. Instrumentally, it’s not overbearing, and I guess one of its drawcards is the singer’s voice. Of course, it’s one thing to have a feminine and melodic voice, and it’s another to be dynamic with it; so you have to say bravo to the artist as he sings his story out, and then at times ditching the lyrics totally, and going non-lexical. While the instrumentation is not overbearing, a little part of me thinks it should even be lighter to complement his voice so that the listener can perfectly hear the words. 

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