URL: www.chrismardinimusic.com
“I been leaning / Don’t wanna go through this alone / Keep breathing / I’m tired, stressed, wanna go home” croons Chris Mardini in the opening stanza of his new single “Retrospective Outlook,” every word saturated in an angst-ridden grit that is almost more expressive than the actual substance of the statements being made is. Mardini sounds like a lyrical lightning bolt in this track, and though he’s exposing as much of his heart as one can in the recording studio here, the very notion of egotism never enters the big picture in “Retrospective Outlook.” This is a young songwriter who knows exactly what sort of sound he wants to contribute to the alternative rock spectrum, and personally, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find another artist like him this September.
Mardini’s lyrics aren’t he only weapon that he’ll employ on this sonic battlefield. The guitar play is kaleidoscopically colorful, textured and packed with a melodic moxie of a rare breed. The bassline is lightly overdriven, giving it a lot more push when it counts the most in the chorus, and the metallic faceting that joins it with the thunderous percussion never sounds even remotely artificial or unnatural. The robotics of a millennial-era alternative rock are completely absent from “Retrospective Outlook,” and in their place we instead find a fluidity that is almost surreal in style (but wholly different from the postmodern pop movement taking place in the American indie underground at the moment). No one can accuse him of playing someone else’s tune in this single; he’s definitely working with his own unique repertoire.
Though it’s got a supremely polished production quality, I don’t think that this song ever comes off as a product of commercial pandering. The emotion that Mardini exhibits in his lyrical expressions is more than enough evidence to prove otherwise, but if we look even deeper than the verses, we discover a passion that runs throughout the entire fabric of this song’s main melody. There’s nothing getting in between artist, art and audience in “Retrospective Outlook,” and that isn’t something that I have been able to say about the vast majority of music that I’ve been spinning for the last eight months. Mardini has a gift, and he’s not going to let anything stop him from sharing it with the world.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thechrismardini/
If this single is but a sampling of what’s to come next from this budding performer, then you can guarantee that “Retrospective Outlook” won’t be the only track released under the Chris Mardini moniker to make headlines in the underground and mainstream press as the 2020s finally come into focus. There’s some room near the top of the American pop hierarchy for fresh blood, and if this singer/songwriter plays his cards right, then there’s not a doubt in my mind that he’s going to have a legit shot at elevating his status in the New York City scene he calls home a lot faster than most artists his age could ever dream of. “Retrospective Outlook” might be a reflective power ballad, but it says an awful lot about the future of its creative mastermind.
Jodi Marxbury