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There’s a lot of interest in the singer/songwriter movement at the moment, but I don’t think there’s enough attention being paid to the solo content coming out of the country underground this winter. Artists like Melissa Quinn Fox are reigniting a passion for Americana that has been mostly missing from the pop lexicon for the better part of the last twenty years right now, and in her new single “Slow Down,” she asserts herself as one of the more direct and focused players in her scene coming into 2023.
URL: https://melissaquinnfox.com/
“Slow Down” relies on a soft structure in comparison to a lot of the Americana I’ve been listening to in the last couple of months, and yet it doesn’t lack a potent lead vocal in the least – quite the contrary, truth be told. There’s scarcely a moment in which Fox isn’t able to use her voice as the bedrock for boldness in this piece, which is telling of both her skillset as an arranger as well as a singer who is still looking to break out of her insular indie circuit. All in all, I’ve got a good feeling this is going to be the song to do just that.
Fox doesn’t mind getting close to the beat when we’re least expecting it, and yet there isn’t a lot of physicality for us to contend with as we get closer to the main climax of the track. This mix makes sure that nothing is impeding on the string harmony at the forefront of the hook, but there’s just as much to be said about the way it imposes so much additional melodicism in these words than we would have had otherwise.
From the verse to the execution to the very tone of the ascending fever pitch, “Slow Down” does anything but what its name would imply it should as we reach the finish line, instead inspiring our hearts to race beside Fox’s as she endeavors forth. I love her optimism on the other side of these lyrics, and I think it could breed even more sizzling content if channeled properly.
There is still a lot I want to see from this singer/songwriter in the near future, but if you haven’t listened to “Slow Down” yet, you might want to give it a spin before the month is over. Melissa Quinn Fox contends with a pretty massive arrangement and comes out sounding much more proficient than a lot of her peers would, and judging from the general scope of her talents, there isn’t a limit to what she might be able to produce if given enough room to blossom in the studio.
This is a sound that needs to be hammered out between four walls before it can properly own the stage it was always meant to be heard on, and if she focuses on balladry as much as she does the oomph driving this significant new single forward, Fox isn’t going to have a hard time maintaining a very sterling reputation.
Jennifer Munoz
