Gareth Dunlop exposes our goofiness and weird inclinations to be socially awkward when we’re required to do small talk. In his latest single, Small Talk, the Belfast-based pop icon highlights how he likes to go in depth with the people he meets and know more about them rather than having stupid and small talk.
The instrumental is a mix of electro-pop and pop-rock with a bunch of melodic guitars and drums that sound like 80s drum machines to delve deeper into that synth-pop/synth-rock sound. I really love how the instrumental is well thought out and well-mapped with the vocals; such a stylish and catchy beat deserves to be on the pop charts everywhere.
Now when we talk about Mr Dunlop’s voice, I really don’t know where to start. There are places in the verses where he does the heady kind of pop voice that’s popular since the ’90s and 2000s, and he does it effortlessly. But there are some sweeter parts where he has a deeper grunt/growl sound that immerses you in his emotions. The bridge section was brilliant, too, cause it’s the most softly sung, and it almost sounds like spoken word, but he still puts some intonation into the way he does it. Just pure brilliance.
The lyrics of that bridge section speak so much to me and how I wanna know people a bit more deeply than all their small talk. Check this out:
“I’m a crowded tapestry
I’m a book with torn up pages
I’m all the answers I can’t find
I’m rejections and embraces
Tell me something I don’t know
Go deeper than the weather
Who you were and who you are
How you hold you hold yourself together”
So if that alone isn’t enough to hook you up with Gareth Dunlop and his lyrics, then I don’t know what will. This man’s impeccable emotional delivery and brilliant choice of vocal styles and registers is something you don’t find many artists doing nowadays, and for that, I believe “Small Talk” is worth your while.
