It may not be safe outside, but we’ll always be Safe In Sound! It’s time for a new post!

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Good evening, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and you’re reading your daily track on the blog because it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! Orlando Weeks’ “Safe In Sound” is another one of these tracks which I haven’t quite got around to writing up about before, despite it being a few months old. However, late certainly doesn’t mean least in this case – although you could say that I’ve been waiting to type about this one for “Weeks” – Pun intended! Orlando Weeks is the leading man of the fairly well-known English alternative rock band The Maccabees, who have had a share of minor UK hits, such as “Pelican” and “Toothpaste Kisses”. Since the band parted their seperate ways in 2016, Orlando Weeks has begun to work on launching his solo career. His solo debut album “A Quickening” is set for release on 12th June via the PIAS Recordings indie label. I don’t want to give much away, so let’s just have a listen to the single “Safe In Sound” below.

“Safe In Sound” serves up as a Pristine and Smooth-Jazz like introduction to his cuts on the new album which document the birth of Weeks’ first son. It’s a fresh-sounding and naturally sonic track that re-introduces us to Weeks’ mellow vocal delivery, but a re-positioning of his guitar work. Weeks sings: “I would wait forever to hear the sound that you’ll make” over the top of constructed brass sounds and sparse, Brian Eno-like synth loops. The beats are infused with slight Jazz sensibilities and ethereal qualities that capture the essence of anticipation within his feelings of anxiety and excitement during the monumental, albeit scary, life moment. Weeks also sings: “Cut to pieces/Torn to ribbons/Caustic in your critics” , a closing lyrical hook which enhances the warm and nervous emotions of the layered piano arrangement, topped off by kaleidoscopic sampling effects that blends with the jittery horn sections, the Blues-ish guitar elements and Weeks’ laidback vocals to create an art-style collage of Shoegaze-esque rhythmns that, for a lack of a better word, constantly fidget and itch to the restrained vocals. It’s admittedly similar to The Maccabees’ in it’s opening and it sounds quite a lot like Bombay Bicycle Club, but it feels very inspired and it captures the emotions of it’s subject matter very fluently. It sounds like an instant influence point for other bands to follow, potentially in bigger releases, which is a very good thing in the case of establishing Weeks in his beginning solo career – Bravo!

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Thank you very much for reading this post! Please stay safe (In Sound), don’t do anything silly and keep on washing those hands! As always, I’ll be back tomorrow, with an in-depth review of a newer single from a Northern Irish electronic duo, signed to the Ninja Tune label, who used to run a blog called “Feel My Bicep” that specialized in posting lost and forgotten edits of Chicago House, Detroit Techno and Latino Disco mixes. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when each new post is up and like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime