Ded Serius - Desert Sky
Rock, Alternative/Alt. Rock, Popk
Arizona, United States
Overall Impression: Ded Serius's Desert Sky is dry and rolling, bringing a wide open Americana dream to life with thick wobbly bass and austere guitar falling through a gracious melody and soulfully illustrative, candid lyrics. Both familiar, and decidedly Alternative, Desert Sky makes for a reassuring love song that speaks to young, disenfranchised hearts with a strong sense of faithful affection, and comfortable isolation.
Strongest Point(s): Desert Sky's lyrics show excellent structure, allowing listeners plenty of visual imagination broken up by expositional discoveries, like the reveal at "‘Cause my girl’s a punk rocker..." with the narrator's current predicament, former situation, and subsequent resolve all falling into place quite naturally and creatively as the song unfolds. Coyotes, Cacti, rattlesnakes, violet horizons, and night skies all paint vivid mental pictures, the resigned loneliness of the scene echoed in the song's expressive yet level, attractive vocals. Tonally, the acoustic sounding guitar reinforces the track's Western, Americana theme, tritely addressed with the warning "this ain’t country/western music," while the bass's reverb and other tonal/effects decisions give the piece a very memorable sound, reinforced through neat recording and competent production. The tempo is steady, with a chill Alt groove that takes its time, but drives through unwavering, holding audience attentions to the last.
Target Audience Appeal: Desert Sky is well pegged as an Alternative track, but it certainly has the potential to speak to Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Indie, and stoner crowds as well. The detailed lyrics of the song beg for a setting where they can be given an audience's full attention, be that at an intimate venue, summer festival, on a commute, at home, or featured on a podcast or other show that includes music front and center.
Artist target suggestions: Spoon, The Jayhawks, The Lonely Biscuits, Old 97's, The Weakerthans, Fruit Bats, Jack Symes, Rhett Miller, Dr. Dog, Rayland Baxter
Interested in having your Song Reviewed by our Professional Staff? Head to your RadioAirplay.com dash and click Song Reviews under the Special Offers menu!
About the Reviewer:
Mary Wildsmith is an FM Radio DJ, and has been involved in both on-air work and radio production for five and a half years, in addition to working the past decade in and out of the live entertainment industry. She has experience with the fickle nature of the music industry, selecting singles to promote or discard for radio play, and engineering stage to audience sound systems. Having worked balancing, troubleshooting, and running audio rigs has enabled her to be both sensitive, and sympathetic, to the finesse and nuance of quality recording. Mary is passionate about promoting new and independent artists, and has spent extensive time in round-table environments discussing music and audio critically, and collaborating with artists to enable them to put the best possible foot forward with their art.