They got adventurous with this one, and I absolutely love it.
Dec 2nd, 2022. (Revised On December 9th)
INFORMATION
Title - You'll Be Fine
Artist - Dopamine
Album - Deficiency (TBA)
Release Date - December 9th 2022
My First Listen - November 17th 2022
Sounds Like - Black Veil Brides (Sonically), My Chemical Romance (Sonically & Structurally) Palaye Royale (Lyrically, Stylistically, and Vocally), Bring Me The Horizon (Emotionally Speaking), Maneskin (Songwriting Wise), The Paper Melody (Chorus & Finale Structure), Keane (Certain Elements), Pink Floyd (On The Transitions)
Quality? (Improvement, Evolving, Maintaining, Plateau, Decline): Improvement, Evolution, and Maintaining all apply
What a ride.
So for a little context: You'll Be Fine, the newest song from Dopamine, is coming out on December 9th, next Friday (UPDATE: In the time since this review, December 9th has come, the track is out). As of right now I presume its the last single before the release of Deficiency, which is now slated for release next year.
I've already had it for a couple weeks, since the 17th of November in fact, I've been listening to it ever since then. Because not to pat myself on the back too much, but I was given the honor of recieving an advance copy of the track by the band, completely out of the blue via a dm on twitter, and trust me, its as big and awesome as a feeling as you would assume and more. A huge milestone, I was losing my shit on my couch when that message came in, and its probably my most listened track of November and December.
Let me tell you, after repeated listens I feel more prepared to review this track than any other, and I'll say that once again, the band did not disappoint.
The song starts out quick, sonically something between the last two singles sonically, 3am and Self Made, if I had to describe it. However, one thing has to be made clear immediately, Levi's voice is quite a different animal, in general, its like Remington Leith or Damiano David's voice in its ability to deliver a equal parts warm and chilling rasp, but also coax out incredibly beautiful pure clean vocals. Its like some of these vocalists, but also individual in some ways too, maybe thats because of his practice or because of his origins, a chill yet passionate guy from Scotland's east coast. Yet on this track in particular, while admittedly the whole band is firing on all cylinders for every song theyve released, something about this track feels special, the delivery of the vocals is dripping with darker, more contemplative emotion at some points, and bursting with reckless joy in others (in particular, the chorus). Levi reigns it in at the right moments and lets it charge forward like a snarling lion at perfect other moments, and does it as easily as one may fly a kite. Then you have the stuttering bombast of the guitar and bass during the chorus, the drums cracking in like someone musically weaponized firecrackers, keeping perfect time and always filling in the perfect spaces in the melodies, both scratching that itch when finds the pocket, but then also creating that headrush of friction when it gets switched up. JD, Ben, Lewis, & GypsyHawk all bringing their best to the table as usual, bringing an alternative sound mixed with modernized 80's vibes at ecertain points, and a punk sensibility to the track, their bass tones always stand out, their guitar strings catching fire.
Once again, the track also benefits from its impeccable recording, I would expect no less than what Dopamine accomplished from the labels that house their adjacent fanbases and inspirations, Sumerian, Better Noise, Roadrunner, all may have professional studios to go to, same as the major labels. Fuck, even my little suburb of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, Canada, apparently has a studio or two, not that I could actually find them aside from mentions on local artists CD credits. However remember, Bring Me The Horizon recorded Post-Human: Survival Horror, in their houses, they used fucking blankets on stacked tables to make vocal booths, they met on Zoom, they recorded every track save for Ludens without professional equipment, and even that required a hotel setup with a chair and bath towels to demo and track vocals. Professional Recording, despite having become easier in the recent years, does not detract from the incredible achievement that comes with having your very first self - released singles be well enough recorded that they likely will hold up to whatever future recordings they may release, label or not.
I do feel I need to make clear one thing, its not a criticism, simply a thing to go in knowing. The track could been said to be... short. Not in a way that would really bother anyone, as it still pushes past 2:30, but if you are expecting a 5 minure song, dont. In fact, I think the song benefits from its shorter runtime, because where it is a slow, almost as odd as it sounds sultry paced song, it makes for the perfectly timed experience, doing what Palaye Royale's 2016 song "Rag Doll" managed to do in half the time. In which I mean to say Spoiler Alert: The track has a tempo change, that clearly divides it into two interconnected sections. The first part I've already talked about, however its after the chorus where things get really interesting.
Because the track mellows out for a second, giving an almost Pink Floyd feel for a few seconds, then Levi's voice kicks into a melancholy rasp, and the guitars and drum's blaze into a glorious explosion of blistering finale goodness. (it sounds odd, but I mean it and I like it and I'm not taking it back). I think the best way to describe this song is like burning a match down to your fingertips. Theres the ignition, the speed of that initial burn, then the slow deliberate purpose of the match burning down to its last cinders, elegantly paced throughout the process.
Me: "Well" *sighs* "Thats another 100 on the board, NOBODY is gonna believe I'm objective now"......
Yep, thats 100 number 3 for Dopamine. And quite frankly they deserve it, they are a brand new band that has in less than a year, released 4 INCREDIBLE studio quality tracks that rival songs by the objective best and my all-time favourite bands. If thats not worthy of one A and three 100% grades I dunno what the would be. They have their fucking debut album announced already for shits sake! They are a band that I'm happy to have been around to see grow since the beginning, and when they are playing festivals alongside their idols someday in the very near future (I am certain of this), I'll be there in the crowd, happy and proud to have been there to see everything that lead up to it.
The song is a duality, in a way, its all about the same thing, but yet also captures two different things together. And as the halfway point of the upcoming album's tracklist, I'd say it seems like it could come at no better point in the album. 3am slated as the opener is incredibly cinematic, including a well thought out and powerful synth lined intro, and Self Made as the closer also seems like a great choice, it is a firecracker of a song, featuring their besr groove, and while the song has personal meaning in it, I also see a commentary about the band themselves, they dont have a label or manager per se, theres no outside people in suits pouring money in towards their success, they are doing this themselves, getting shit done, and damn have they ever whipped up a following, just for an example, on twitter there is barely a Palaye Royale fan who hasnt yet found this band.
I'm incredibly impatient to see how all the tracks on their upcoming debut album Deficiency will fit together (get it? DOPAMINE... DEFICIENCY? I laughed so hard when I realized that, partly because it took me like two hours to do so) is shaping up to be an iconic debut album from a someday to be historic band. Onward and upward as they say.
Thanks, and see you all later, go pre-save & pre-order if you were here before the 9th, and go stream the fuck out of You'll Be Fine and buy a copy if you are here on or after the 9th. I feel like supassing at least one of their songs all time streams on release day is possible personally, so make it happen people!
Bye for now, dopamine links and the song on youtube are below, and thanks to Lou for permission to use the preview image, you can find her on twiiter at: https://twitter.com/itz_loulou02
Tyler|108
P.S; Is it just me or does Levi look a bit like Noah Sebastian of Bad Omens in this photo...?
LINK TO PRESAVE: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/dopamine51/youll-be-fine
DOPAMINE LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/Dopamine.Band
YOUTUBE VIDEO:
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