Neal Sawyer – Hold Onto Love

After the exceptional debut full-length album Ballads Of The Mortal and a couple of singles such as Tending To Tears and A Christmas Song (At Christmas Time), Cannock-based alternative folk singer-songwriter Neal Sawyer returns with another profoundly emotional song that will unquestionably appeal to your ears. Neal Sawyer wrote Hold Onto Love after he rushed into A&E and was later diagnosed with type one diabetes. This situation gave him plenty of time to think about life, write, and compose such an incredible number that possesses many qualities. Perhaps Hold Onto Love leans towards contemporary alternative folk, but there are some of the finest ingredients borrowed from music genres such as indie folk, indie pop, and dream pop. Sawyer skillfully combined each element, and the song has a nice flow. It sails through your listening apparatus like a charm from scratch to finish.

Hold Onto Love commences with a minimalistic build-up and Sawyer gradually adds layer upon layer of delicate instrumentations. It’s a wise move usually seen in ambient compositions, but it works well for alternative folk too. The piano and the ambient segments shape the sonic direction of the song, while the bass and guitar come more as accentuations. Each instrument becomes more hearable as this number approaches the end, and you’ll hear how the rhythm section fulfills the ambiance with heavy but more than necessary beats. Sawyer‘s whispery voice comes as a cherry on top and decorates these orchestrations to the max. I couldn’t imagine another singing technic that would suit this type of song better than this, and he nailed it with this move. You should check out Hold Onto Love because Neal Sawyer invested nothing but brilliant ideas into it, and the effort is vividly hearable throughout the entire number. The single is available on all streaming platforms.