In order to cultivate a strong sense of artistic originality, it’s important for an act to take a step back and consider what matters the most to their profile. Whether it be melodic detail, compositional wit, or perhaps expressing heartfelt emotion for nothing more than the medium, priorities are everything in thought-provoking music – particularly in the pop genre.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/migrantmotel/?hl=en
If anyone knows this right now, it’s Migrant Motel, and their new single “Shame” reflects a deeper desire to reflect on their relationship with both music and the career they’ve been building together whilst exhibiting what their greatest artistic priorities are. We don’t have to study this track very hard to find the mammoth emotion that lies just beneath the surface of the chic synth play and monolithic vocal melodies that form it; everywhere we look, the players are sewing a personal touch into the music, and imparting feelings that cannot be expressed through mere words by themselves. “Shame” isn’t quite as fundamentally experimental as the other three songs in this duo’s discography are, but one thing is for certain; if you’re a discriminating pop fan, this track is one the most intriguing and multifaceted indie singles to come out of Mexico or the United States this year. It’s not a perfect composition, but in terms of originality, it’s a tough number to top.
Cosmetically, “Shame” is a somewhat familiar pop number that relies on its rhythm to forge its emotive backdrop rather than using its lyrics alone. The instruments are impressing just as much of a mood on the music as any of the verses do, and there are even a couple of moments – particularly outside of the chorus – where it feels like they’re developing the narrative a little more clearly than the words ever do (or could, for that matter). At first glance, I wasn’t very enthralled with the drum track here, but I think I can understand what Ilizaliturri was trying to do with it in this situation. There’s a lot of weight in the bass parts we hear in “Shame,” as there is in the synth’s guiding melody, and if the percussion was any more pronounced than it already is, it probably would have made the instrumental half of this single sound clustered and overwhelming in some of its most crucial junctures.
SMART URL: https://fanlink.to/MigrantMotelShame
Though I’m not certain that it would hold up as well in a live setting as it did in the studio, I’d be interested to see Migrant Motel’s set on stage sometime in the future. It’s not psychedelic in nature, but it does have a spacey, freeform stylization that would make it either unmatched jam material (that could be extended or transformed into anything during a performance) or a decidedly less theatrical take on what we’ve already heard here, depending entirely on the mood of the players in the moment. Migrant Motel is an underground project that clearly still has a lot of work to do, but I can’t see that remaining the case as long as they keep delivering material like this.
Jodi Marxbury