Trevor Drury – I Know You From the 70’s
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/track/7797B1cyTOGO1OAY47FWgr
Trevor Drury’s single “I Know You from the 70’s” is a stunning achievement that seems to exert little effort in making us believe, but makes quite an impact. The easy grace and musical textures here are, undoubtedly, the product of much hard work, but it’s marvelous how it all comes off sounding like a case of brilliant first take inspiration and doesn’t mire itself in even a second of self indulgence. He’s an evocative singer given a chance to really shine here thanks to choices made in the studio to lightly cover his voice with just the right amount of distance and it makes the emotional tone of the song all the more wistful and reflective. Drury began his musical life at the age of eight when his mother purchased an electric piano and he subsequently became obsessed with the possibilities provided by the form. This spark of inspiration propelled him to study voice during college and, despite enjoying a blossoming modeling career, has remained the guiding creative passion of his life. You can hear it in every note of this song.
His voice is quite artful. Drury’s penchant for infusing the lyrics with a lovely emotive weepiness elevates the songwriting several notches, but he exhibits a variety of approaches to conveying the lyric that sounds like the work of a singer with several decades of experience rather than a precocious newcomer with passion and talent to burn. There are some additional voices that really help to make the piece fly, but they are always revolving around the arrangement and Drury’s voice. Drury’s voice, likewise, has strength that plays off rather nicely against the light touch of the musical arrangement without ever upsetting the emotional balance of the song.
The track clocks in at exactly four minutes and not a moment is wasted. It’s primarily electronic in nature and attentive listeners will surely hear the song’s likely origins in the way its piano flourishes are wrapped around each of Drury’s vocal lines. There is a smattering of bass thrown in to give the track some semblance of a bottom end and it works out rather well because, ultimately, this is a delicate musical piece. That’s reflected particularly well in the ethereal bridges and bright keyboard wash laid over the top of the track’s structure. The bridges are a highpoint of the song thanks to the greater role taken by the backing singers in answering and counterpointing Drury’s voice. The song ends in this manner, somewhat, as the main motif falls away and we are left with a sparkling cloud of keyboards, yearning voices buried deep within the mix, and Drury seemingly stepping back into the shadows. The fog of memory presiding over this song is transparent – we can hear every wrenching emotional turn depicted in the lyric coming through in the sound and approach taken here. “I Know You From the 70’s” should serve as notice to those believing substantive pop has died – it hasn’t. Marvelous performers are still emerging and Trevor Drury stands among their number.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/trevordrury55/?hl=en
Michael Saulman