A fitting soundtrack for the longer, warmer days…Indie-pop phenomenon Cavetown is known for his heart-warming and honest songwriting. Latest release ‘Man’s Best Friend’ acts as a vignette of the singer’s lived experience, particularly over the tumultuous last 12 months.
The 22 year-old opens up his EP with ‘Idea of Her’, a folky acoustic-rich track which seeps sweet melancholia and introspection. With distant echoes of Conan Gray and Pinegrove, the London-based singer has a distinct ability to create sentiments of bottled nostalgia in his lyrics that intertwine with his indie-pop/ folk sound. Contemplating time zones and complexities of love as a concept, the singer ruminates ‘if I don’t want anyone / then why do I feel so alone?’ Living during a time that has forced disconnection, it may seem strange to desire solitude, yet the singer eloquently expresses a common battle people have between intimacy and isolation.
Listeners can lean on the poignant single ‘Ur Gonna Wish U Believed Me’, a vulnerable and validating track that follows the difficulties of seeking help but feeling like no one wants to listen. Bright, breathy vocals are elongated and stretch out as they reach the atmospheric bridge which takes the listener on a celestial journey of its own. Cavetown’s production shines as his lyrics harbour universal emotions endured over the past year.
Dreamy new material comes in the form of tracks such as the woozy ‘I want to Meet Ur Dog’. Its textured instrumentation is paired with gentle piano chords that glow in the distant background. The bittersweet closer ‘Guilty’ delicately reveals the singer’s unbridled personal expression. A deep yearning pervades the cover of Big Thief’s 2016 single ‘Paul’. A sound reminiscent of his own, the song is both heavy in pain and glimmers with ephemeral moments of happiness, acting as a lament for his own lost connections.
A collection of music created in a time of deliberate solitude, ‘Man’s Best Friend’ chronicles everything from hopeless crushes, unhealthy coping mechanisms and toxic positivity. The body of work in full is wistfully compelling, providing comfort in a uniquely fuzzy way. Cavetown’s sincere vocals and inviting melodies gleam and as we enter the summer months, ‘Man’s Best Friend’ is a fitting soundtrack for the longer, warmer days.
8/10
Words: Sahar Ghadirian
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