Fleetwalker: ‘Perseverance’ is near heart-stopping
A multi-instrumentalist and talented composer, Jonathan Vecci aka Fleetwalker is a singer-songwriter from New Jersey. Following on from the critical acclaim of his debut LP ‘Morning Void’ in 2011 and the 2016 video single ‘ASAP’, Fleetwalker continues with the release of his latest album, ‘Perseverance’. With this recording he’s top of his game and the result is near heart-stopping, allowing us to sit half in the ideal world of Fleetwalker and half inside a cauldron of our own intimate thoughts. Musically, there’s a sense of evolution, with this album as Vecci shows a will to push things forward whilst sharing gorgeous tricklings of imagery.
It’s the closeness and the honesty which makes ‘Perseverance’ a thing of awe. The compulsive, calculated attention to detail can be found in the acoustically textured production, but it’s the lyrics where Fleetwalker shines through brightest.
There are nods to electric beats in the psychedelic-rock infested opening track “Kamikaze” with just about every second offering wide-eared wonderment at the overdriven guitars and Fleetwalker’s urgent and edgy vocal delivery. “Elasticity Comb” rides in on a rolling, pysch-Americana picked and strummed clean guitar.
Fleetwalker’s voice is high-pitched, and both uniquely tremulant and resonant. It’s his archetypal calling card, which he uses to great effect on the slow-burning, and heartfelt “She Bites”. Vecci’s best songs are dense, intense experiences, full of tempered obsession and restrained vehemence and this is one of them.
Fleetwaker keeps his lyrics introspective, his melodies penetrating, and the song’s mood mutating on “Walk On”. It’s one of the strongest tracks on the recording, moving forward with acute lyricism and dealing with sonic space in an emotional manner. And this eclectic style stays consistent throughout the entire record.
There’s so much structural and textural freedom going on in “Best Of Friends” and the piano-driven “Flowers”, as Fleetwaker’s ethereal vocal deliveries clamor for a place amid the esoteric thicket, and it’s like a whole new world opening before your ears. The poetic lyrics and escalating vocal performances propel the songs to greatness.
For most listeners, the biggest draw to Fleetwaker, and his music in general, is his voice. The singer-songwriter is able to deftly find the source of people’s angst and troubles, and turn it into something personal, relative and familiar through his vocal cords.
Closing with the tracks “Mad” and “Love Song”, the best thing about Fleetwaker is that he can, with his words, rouse people to take inspiration from them. In a sense, he obviously cannot directly solve your problems for you, but he’ll give you his experiences and insight to better understand them through his narratives.
What Fleetwaker has created with ‘Perseverance’ is, essentially, a soundtrack to life – music to seriously ponder, music to fall in love with, and perhaps most of all, music to merely become, inevitably, lost in. Fleetwaker’s utter originality and emotional bareness in lyrical and musical conception is what makes him so engaging, and what will harness new fans into the strange yet beautiful music he creates.
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