Music Review // Brendan Scott Friel "Simon the Doubter"

 

As soon as this song starts there are these moments where it is being played and as the guitar is strum you can hear the strings make this noise that most would consider to not be technical or classical, but I really enjoy that sound.  This continues throughout the song as well.  Light and upbeat, Brendan Scott Friel has created a sound similar to that of Death Cab For Cutie in that rock music is being combined with elements of pop.

The song has lines such as: "I can't count on anything these days" and coming out of the global pandemic I think that's a fair statement to make.  Being told to go home, having schools shut down, I mean these are things we just haven't seen before in our life and hopefully won't see again.  But it doesn't kind of put me (and I think a lot of other people) on edge because that call could come just as easily tomorrow, so it would seem.

Brendan Scott Friel eventually comes around to the idea of trust, but does so with the line: "I'll trust in autumn when the leaves start to change", which is pretty clever.   Trusting the leaves to change in autumn is like saying that the only constant in this world is change.  It's a certain amount of stability, but you're finding it within something unstable.  Sometimes, in life, perhaps that is the best which we can hope for.

Electronics sneak through in the back and this definitely has the making of a radio hit, alongside Silversun Pickups and The Pale Pacific, this is just such a great mix of melody and rock.  It's not pop in the way that it's overly catchy but rather in the way that's non-threatening and just generally something you could put on without offending anyone.   Given the nature of the lyrics, that seems only perfect to me.