Another stirring track from London-based artist Olina, “Smithereens” captures the breakup of a friendship within a momentum-filled rock sound. In addition to creating the handmade jewelry brand Drool Jewel, Olina continues to impress with authentic, melodic songwriting — evident here, in addition to previously featured cuts like “Newspaper Smell” and “Tug of War.”
A glimmering, textural ambience moves with spacey intrigue initially, giving way to lush guitar strums. “I need a friend and I know you got me for sure, time after time you never fall short” her melodic vocals open, as twinkling guitar tones and a steadier rhythmic pulse join the mix. “I keep looking for her, and I keep finding her,” the vocals signal a palpable momentum, culminating in an invigorating self-analysis — “I was greedy and now I don’t want it” — as the initial complementary tone transforms into one with conflict and strife.
“Oh I begged to feel nothing at all and I got it,” Olina sings during an especially riveting expanse, showing added emotional vibrancy as the relationship becomes definitively detached — represented in poetic form by the title-touting “blow me to smithereens” refrain. That multi-layered, quivering vocal feeling combines with powerful guitar jangles and thrashing percussion for a rousing send-off. Olina continues to showcase consistently excellent songwriting, with “Smithereens” the latest success.
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
