English punk rock trio Barking Poets returns with another excellent track that will immediately get under your skin. After “The Mess I Made” and “Arizona,” two incredible standalone singles you should immediately check out, these experienced London-based musicians deliver “Losing Contact,” a fine piece of sonic artistry that shines with innovation, clever songwriting, and superb performance. What really blows my mind is how they sound so fresh and unique with every new composition yet retain some of their signature moves that define their previous works. This dedication to the craft is rarely heard or seen on the contemporary punk rock scene, but it seems like Barking Poets are doing this with such ease. For those who somehow missed our previous writings about this outstanding band, Barking Poets nurtures sound based upon fundamental elements of modern melodic punk rock. However, there are also some other additional sonic ingredients lurking around, borrowed from many complementary genres like garage, alternative, indie rock, and power pop. Although their music usually dominates with all those qualities that meet trends in contemporary music production, you’ll definitely hear a subtle touch of nostalgia lurking around. There are vividly hearable nods to eighties, nineties, and noughties indie punk music, and Barking Poets expertly incorporates these elements into the dominantly modern song core.
“Losing Contact” immediately wraps around your listening apparatus with all those beautiful instrumentations and refuses to let go long after the last notes and beats fade. To be honest, Barking Poets have so many qualities that it’s nearly impossible to grasp them in one sitting. The catchy, memorable, vocal harmonies are one of their biggest strengths. You’ll notice how all those leads carry a great portion of melody yet there’s a subtle rawness contributing to aggression. The impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes with such precision and finesse, emphasizing everything Barking Poets intended to achieve with this song. Besides decorating all those segments and instrumentation, these vocal harmonies also contribute more than necessary emotional depth and complexity over an already intricate song structure. Also, you’ll hear how the additional vocal layers, back vocals, and singalongs decorate particular segments, making “Losing Contact” even more appealing to the ears. Barking Poets fully stacked this track with raw, abrasive, gritty chord progressions and riffs. These guitar works are utterly melodic, perfectly supporting the vocal performance. Besides the generous servings of distortion covering these instrumentations, there’s a notion that these folks purposely left those jangly, angular tones beneath the piles of grittiness, making these orchestrations more detailed. This particular move resembles something renowned bands used to do during the late seventies and early eighties, so perhaps that subtle touch of nostalgia shines in the limelight because of the way how these experienced musicians layered these orchestrations.
Beneath all these guitar layers, there are equally impressive, intricate audible, warm-sounding basslines, providing this composition with more heaviness, clarity, and depth while simultaneously binding all the orchestrations with rhythmic patterns. These low-ends contribute more detail and groove as well, making “Losing Contact” even more interesting and appealing to the ears. Just like the remainder of the instrumentations, the drums offer a tremendous performance based upon tastefully arranged, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. These rhythmic sequences keep the remainder of the band in line while dictating the groove and tempo. Barking Poets thought about everything while writing, composing, arranging, recording, and producing their latest single, so you’ll have a pleasant time listening to their excellent performance. “Losing Contact” is more than just a melodic punk rock song. It’s proof of what happens when experience and knowledge meet the desire for crafting catchy, memorable, engaging tunes where singalongs resonate with emotion and guitars shine in all their glory. Barking Poets is a band capable of constructing highly emotional music that will immediately hypnotize you, and they did exactly that with “Losing Contact.” Therefore, head to your favorite streaming platforms and check it out.
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