{"id":5525,"date":"2016-08-10T18:11:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T18:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=5525"},"modified":"2019-04-06T09:03:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T09:03:04","slug":"singles-market-kaleos-hit-single-way-down-we-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/singles-market-kaleos-hit-single-way-down-we-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Singles Market: Kaleo’s Hit Single ‘Way Down We Go’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antonio Beliveau is a singer\/songwriter and rock pianist. Known mostly from his band, Crash Kings, their single, \u2018Mountain Man\u2019 peaked the Alternative Billboard charts in March of 2010.\u00a0 He has performed and recorded with such artists as Chris Cornell, Jet, The Veils, Natasha Bedingfield, Linda Perry, and Christina Aguilara, and is currenlty scoring for film and TV.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This week, Kaleo\u2019s single, \u2018Way Down We Go\u2019, tops the Alternative Billboard charts at #1.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very vib-ey track with plenty of emotion, yet there is something about the song that lacks authenticity and originality. As a pianist, of course my ears perked up to hear a haunting piano sound at the top. But when the vocals come in, it\u2019s definitely a voice we\u2019ve all heard before. Reminiscent of Hoizer (and certainly riding the coat tails of the success of \u2018Take Me To Church\u2019), vocalist J\u00f6kull J\u00fal\u00edusson sings with that deep voice that shakes with so much vibrato you\u2019d think he was permanently frightened of something. It\u2019s that oh-so-successful white-man-doing-his-best-to-sound-like-a-struggling-slave-in-the-cotton-fields<\/i> sound that seems to be keeping the lights on in the rock department of the major labels.\u00a0 Oh, and go figure, Kaleo is from\u2026Iceland? I get it. Zeppelin did it, the Stones did it… I mean, the Black Keys tricked everyone into believing they are actually a band consisting of good musicians. Everyone has their thing.<\/p>\n

Apparently the guys in Kaleo use some rare instrument that most people haven\u2019t seen or heard of. Take it from me, no one gives a fuck about that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good song. Doesn\u2019t get stuck in my head. Doesn\u2019t do it for me. But I get it. I\u2019m sure the guys are talented. I haven\u2019t heard any of their other music, so I am approaching this purely from the standpoint of their single on it\u2019s own. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s possible that there are other great songs on their album, and that this single may not even represent what the rest of their record sounds like. But I still get into a band or an artist from their single — actually, these says, in this singles market, we all do. If the song doesn\u2019t grab me, or I don\u2019t like the singer\u2019s voice, or the music is just, well, bad, then that\u2019s it for me. And anyone who knows me, knows I don\u2019t like much new music.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it\u2019s tough to know exactly why a song really gets that #1 spot on the charts (unless, of course, you\u2019re RHCP, which I\u2019ll get to in my next article — yeah I bet you can\u2019t wait to hear what I think about that<\/em> single\u2026) Having had a #1 single on the Alternative Charts, I can tell you straight up that it wasn\u2019t solely because I wrote a good song. We had the machine. And Kaleo has it as well (they signed to Atlantic Records in early 2015).<\/p>\n

\u2018Way Down We Go\u2019 is engineered beautifully and sonically sounds gorgeous. But as a song it doesn\u2019t do much for me. The chord progression is boring. The guitar solo doesn\u2019t go anywhere. I don\u2019t feel like the song lifts me up the way it could towards the end (there\u2019s a great snare hit that suggests we\u2019re going to go there, but we don\u2019t). The melody is mediocre, and ultimately, I just don\u2019t believe the singer. Lyrically, nothing grabbed me.<\/p>\n

Will it stand the test of time? What does these days?<\/p>\n

On the flip side, I will say is that even though this song doesn\u2019t do much for me, I do appreciate what sounds like an actual performance, regardless of how cut up the track might be. I like that they went organic and not too synth heavy or electronic. That\u2019s a relief. It\u2019s a hell of a song for placement, and while it has been featured in Orange Is The New Black, <\/i>as well as in other shows and films, I do feel like it has plenty more legs to get placed in more TV and Film.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a bad song.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not a great one either.<\/p>\n

Watch the official ‘Way Down We Go’ video here.<\/em><\/p>\n