What do we get if we blend the sensual coolness of Cigarettes After Sex, the whimsical psychedelia of Cocteau Twins, and the trademark melancholy of Cemeteries? Saudi indie pop gem TwentySixth Soul.
Hearing a voice note as profound as the one that bisects ‘You Couldn’t’ could not have moved me more. This is a sentimental and absolutely beautiful new single from Mohammed, a Saudi artist whose indie pop is lush and dreamy, expansive with reverb and droning with its slow and steady beat.
‘You Couldn’t” is a song born out of a personal struggle TwentySixth Soul went through. A long distance connection marred with confusion and mixed signals. The slow and brooding vocal melody is sad and expressive, and the rich guitar arpeggios make this mix one of the nicest and most mellow and immersive I’ve come across for months. Mohammed’s music is unquestionably similar to that of dream pop icons Cigarettes After Sex, but he manages to distill the essence of that group and twist it into something personal and unique. The voice note he incorporated in the mid section, originally sent to a friend, is a moment of stark beauty and honestly, it was absolutely mesmerizing.
‘You Couldn’t’ cannot be simpler in musical terms, but its expressive value is beyond that which I can describe. This is a moving and sensitive piece of music, loaded with an artists’s honest reflections on one thing that is universally relatable, a connection lost in the mess of life.
