An alternative pop rock anthem for dead ends that lead to inevitable heartbreak, ‘Dead End’ is a poignantly edgy piece of scruffy, rough-edged pop rock that’s tight, engaging, and efficiently good.
Los Angeles-based Sareena Rama is a singer and songwriter whose raw emotions and heartfelt words take the leash on ‘Dead End’, the title of her latest single. ‘Dead End’ is driven by Rama’s real-life heartbreak and experience with betrayal, things that can be palpably felt in the song’s hairy and confrontational overdriven guitar tones.
The song is melodic, laced by a sense of angry melancholy. Rama’s delivery is capable and swift. An enjoyable delivery that will resonate will listeners whether they got cheated on recently or not. An easy point for Rama. Her youthful and expressive yells are matched by the dry and bold arrangement, meant to be played loudly. ‘Dead End’ features an in-your-face arrangement composed of a punchy and dry beat, a subdued and melodic bass line that sticks to it, and a pair of hairy guitar lines that deliver the heft of the song’s scratchy texture. The dry production on ‘Dead End’ can be polarizing for some listeners with its bold absence of any form of reverb, but it is a stylistic choice I think makes the song a bold one with a clearly angsty statement, not the usual, downtrodden approach for breakup songs.
All in all, ‘Dead End’ is a fun piece of pop rock by Sareena Rama. Maybe fun isn’t the best word to describe the song with all the visceral emotions running through it, but nonetheless it is a rather well calculated an bold single from a talented rising artist with a singular sonic vision.
