𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 - this week: Let It Go - Unobliterated

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly - an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙄𝙩 𝙂𝙤 - 𝙐𝙣𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙

Charles has a black Sabbath…

Unnecessary stress comes to us all. Doesn't it? You know it does. Why, right now you could be reading without taking it in. I said, right now you could be reading without taking it in. Sometimes a little repetition can help things sink in. But I know; you're stressed. You're thinking about other things. You're worried. You're concerned. I know how it goes. It happens to all of us. All in different ways. Completely understandable. And usually it’s completely pointless. I had an unnecessarily stressful day on Sunday. A Sunday that should have been pleasant, positive and maybe even exciting. Before I continue, I am fully aware that many of you are going through REAL stress of a serious nature. I bring you my nonsense not to tread on or water down your life-goings-on, but to briefly take your mind off it all. A diversion of a kind. Despite being grounded and level-headed, I am prone to nerves. Nerves from the littlest thing. I think too much. I think too much into everything when I should just ride the wave. Here's my Sunday. It all started with breakfast. It was the best bit of the day. It was before my mind had started to work. Dopey in the best way. That Sunday feeling. Then I made a quick plan for the day. The plan was thus:

• Book day trip to somewhere lovely outside London

• Look into a couple of upcoming mixes/productions for clients

• Order new Mac

• Attend podcast interview with Origin Crxss and Lisa Haden (the new NAS podcast host)

Doesn't sound like much of a plan, does it. Sounds pretty light and Sunday-esque, right? Oh-ho-ho. Think again. That first thing of browsing a town/city and working out timings of things was surprisingly tricky when factoring in trains and meals etc.. When travelling there and back in the same day, there ends up not being a huge amount of time to actually do stuff. But my girlfriend and I worked it out. Then there were the train tickets. Maths was needed. Surprisingly though, the actual process was pretty smooth, and more surprisingly, the prices were fine! Right, well that's all good. So why on Earth was I feeling fidgety and uncomfortable? I can't answer that. There was nothing to worry about. The process was all pretty straightforward. I suppose it could be because I knew what was to come, for the rest of the day. Lunch occurred; just as satisfying as breakfast, but less dopey. It stood me in good stead for the following doings. And so, to the following doings. I decided that it was not the day to start opening projects and audio files - it can be a rabbit hole of sorts, and I thought I might not surface for several hours. I also like to treat my clients with respect; they shouldn’t be slotted in. They deserve their own chunk of time. Right… I couldn’t put it off any longer… Mac time. My work machine (my only machine) has served me well over this past decade. But it has come to the point where it simply will not suffice for my needs. Not because it is no longer good, or that it has slowed down in any way, but simply because these days I require more power. So that’s good, right? I mean, this should be a happy time. An exciting time! That I will soon be the proud owner of superpowers! And yet, I am nervous. Deeply nervous as to whether I am choosing exactly the right thing. But more to the point, the justification of such an expense. It is my job, though. It is my life: music. And so it is justified. Good! But bloody hell, does the buying process have to be so damned difficult?? Okay, the actual process should not have been difficult. But there was a glitch. It refused to let me change my postcode to the correct one. It is usually exceedingly easy to spend money. Yet here I was, struggling to do so. “Take my money, you farting bag of crap! Take my 14 trillion pounds in return for a tiny little metal box!”… Eventually, after much effort and shifting around of funds from account to account, I got it done. But throughout the whole ordeal, I was in such a state. This was NOT like it is in the movies. Apple Pay failed. My card failed. Eventually Paypal worked, but not straightforwardly. I have never spent so much on a thing in my life. One thing. God.

But why did this make me so especially stressed…? Well, probably because I was due to be interviewed by Origin and Lisa in the evening. After-dinner kind of evening. Yes, it weighed on my mind throughout the entire day. Not a nice feeling, I must admit. This might show you the extent of my nerves, and why I CANNOT do any live shows. I’ve always been like this. Perhaps 8pm on a Sunday was not the best idea, but I desperately didn’t want to let them down. Spoiler alert: I let them down. I made myself clean and pretty. I chose what dress to wear. I did my makeup. I even had the camera set up, all ready to go. I then gobbled some food and swigged some wine. I was not remotely hungry. In fact, I hadn’t been hungry all day. With 10 minutes to go, I started to sweat. I then started to panic and feel faint. Quite the cool character for an interview…! In hindsight, it’s all rather amusing. But at the time it was stifling. Unfortunately I had no alternative but to do what I never do. I had to cancel with 5 minutes to spare; thus letting them down. It felt awful. But so did I. There was no other option. The good thing is, it isn’t so much cancelled, as postponed. Meaning, you poor people will still have to sit through more of me wittering on, eventually. But this time it will be with sound and vision! What a thought. Let’s not think about it. Hindsight is key, here. Self analysis. What went wrong? EYE went wrong! Later that evening, my dear girlfriend (as saintly as ever) held me in her arms, looked into my eyes, and said three words. No, not those three words. She said “You bloody idiot”. No, no. She didn’t. She said, “Let it go”. And as if by magic, she had lifted the heavy weight of nothing in particular, and replaced it with an air of peace. She’s good like that. She didn’t rectify the matter, she undid the matter. I went from “obliterated” to “unobliterated”.

With this week’s artist, good things come in threes. I say this because every single one of their six releases so far has something in common: Truth Is Nothing, Never Coming Back, Feels so Good, What It Means, Do It Right, and finally Let It Go. They all have three words. Please welcome Unobliterated to my three-sided Corner! Enough about threes. I only mentioned it because it was of interest to me. It probably holds no interest to you. We’re here to talk about one man and one song. Gary Taylor is the sum total of Unobliterated. Actually, that’s not quite true. He does have the occasional co-writer. Oh, and a certain lady friend of his appears at a certain point… Despite Gary living in Portugal, he grew up in Britain. Sadly, this is becoming a common theme… I completely understand that people will have their reasons for emigrating, but their heart and soul tend to belong to their place of birth and upbringing. Musically speaking, I must admit to not being able to hear much in the way of Portugal. This is both the sound of Britain and the sound of America. America, who decided the best option for TikTok was to let it go. But then bring it back again the following day. How very British! More unnecessary stress that caused me no stress whatsoever. I digress. Gary Taylor is pretty new on the scene, but fast claiming the hearts of many. His first single was only ten months ago, and he has only been a member of the New Artist Spotlight since August. Although it might seem to many like five months is a rather large chunk of time, there are scores of members (maybe even hundreds) who have been part of the community for several years. So I count Gary as “relatively new”. Lovely chap though, I must say. We’ve chatted on and off since October. We talked about his songs, my reviews, and mixing. And of course, general chit-chat. The general chit-chat is vital as it shows the humour and the human behind the name. I mentioned that we talked about mixing… That was NOT a shameless plug for myself - I have not mixed any of his tracks. But I’m more than happy to mix anyone else’s, should you be interested. Now THAT, was a shameless plug.

We’ve talked about the man. Let’s talk about the song. Let It Go is the latest release from Unobliterated, and the first to appear here. Although quite a few might know the song from having appeared in the NAS Top 20, I have a strong feeling there will still be many who aren’t familiar with it. Released in December, one might be forgiven for thinking it were to be a cover of the much revered (lord knows why) song from Disney’s Frozen. Fortunately, it is something altogether warmer. I love it when everything is such quality. Then I can concentrate on the actual song and the music, rather than the sound and the playing/singing ability. This is a wicked rock song. It’s pretty slow and groovy. Groovy because rather than nodding your head, you’ll be making a groove in the sand with your chin. You’ll understand as soon as you press play. Very cool with mucho swagger. From the initial bass slide onwards, guitars are shimmering with tremolo goodness and the right amount of delay. It’s dark and progressive, like a determined man in a long coat who means business. Wouldn’t be out of place in Peaky Blinders, actually. It has THAT kind of cool. The drums are slamming! But the level of “proper” only really sinks in once Gary starts singing. He honestly sounds a lot like Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age) - frankly, one of the coolest men in rock. Such headstrong character and confidence. The chorus makes me think of Feeder with their popper sensibility, but with something of INXS and Mansun as well.

When I DO concentrate on the sound and the playing/singing ability however, it is solid. A classy production. And he did this entirely solo?? Sounds like a full-on band rocking out to each other. Well… He did have some help… Che Hargreaves plays that smooth bass. A chap called Pete Ressel (a former bandmate from the band The Tasers) helped with the writing (the idea might sometimes start with something from Pete), but it was mostly “Gary’s baby”. And what does Gary need to make a baby? No rude jokes, please. A wife, that’s right. Please welcome Anna to the table! Anna is now off the table, feet firmly on the ground, with a microphone in her hand. Let It Go is her musical debut! Those harmonies in the second and third chorus are special. They add another dimension to the song, and this was something I latched on to from my very first listen. I had always assumed it was Gary doing falsetto. But no! All courtesy of Anna - the wife. They’re unusual harmonies to choose, and they work BRILLIANTLY! Hopefully we’ll hear more from her on forthcoming Unobliterated releases. So! Although the song is not entirely a solo endeavour, there’s one thing he does solo: the solo. One magnificently crafted guitar solo that rides out the final minute of the song. Exquisite work, and just the song I was waiting for from Unobliterated. Despite having made my "maybe pile" several times, I knew he had more in him. I wanted to wait until something like this, so I could just let it go.

If you’re thinking you might have come up with the best pun in the world relating to the song’s title, whisper words of wisdom; let it go.

Listen to 𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙄𝙩 𝙂𝙤 on the 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 Spotify playlist HERE!

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