Lately it’s seemed as though there’s a bit of duel taking place in modern folk/rock between American postmodernists and Canadian minimalists, with both sets of songwriters bringing a unique but entirely conflicting slew of sounds to the contemporary spectrum, but in the case of Sébastien Lacombe’s “Gold in Your Soul,” the latest single/video combo from this Montreal-based folkie just might have struck a good-enough balance between the two styles to satisfy fans of all parties considered. “Gold in Your Soul” is a simple folk/rocker with a sturdy vocal harmony at the heart of its compositional allure, and though it isn’t the only song of its kind you should be listening to right now, it’s certainly one of the best to come from an indie voice this season.
URL: https://www.sebastienlacombe.com/
Everything in this track, and its music video, revolves around Sébastien Lacombe’s lead vocal, and while it would be inaccurate to say that there aren’t any sonic embellishments that draw us in at the onset of the song, it’s ultimately our lead singer’s voice that keeps us on the edge of our seats from start to finish here. When you’ve got the kind of versatility that this artist is working with, you don’t need a lot of additional oomph in the mix to transform black and white words into kaleidoscopic agents of evocation, and where the production quality of “Gold in Your Soul” could be deemed by some in the industry as a bit too rough and tumble to sell well with mainstream listeners, you’d be hard-pressed to find another folk single this spring with quite as much soul as this one is boasting.
There’s a lot of great alternative music out on record store shelves right now, but among the new songs I’ve reviewed in the month of April, Sébastien Lacombe’s is definitely one of my new favorites. Similarly to the stylings of Americans like Anthony Quails and Gallery 47 but entirely Canadian in its natural tone and heartfelt melodicism, Lacombe’s sound has the potential to cross a lot of barriers in 2020, and with the success of “Gold in Your Soul,” I think this is one singer/songwriter who stands to see a dramatic uptick in support around the world over the course of the year.
Levi Colston