In the center of a dark and twisted hurricane of harmonies, we find the soft and smooth vocal stylings of one Taylor Colson waiting to lead us to the loving arms of safety in “Hurt Me,” Colson’s all-new single currently out everywhere indie pop is available.
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Our leading lady doesn’t take her job in this song lightly at all – contrary to what many of her peers have been employing amidst a growing minimalist pop movement, she’s going all-in on an excess-based harmony style in “Hurt Me” that could potentially get her 86’d from the establishment for life – and win her a permanent home in the hearts of underground aficionados everywhere. To me, the tradeoff is a worthy one, and when you take a peek at just how much detail each band of melodic ribbonry is in this song, I think you’re going to agree with me. Colson isn’t looking to be Katy Perry in her new single; she wants to be darker, more mysterious, and perhaps even more intellectually provocative than any of her current contemporaries in and outside of her scene are.
This single has an incredibly multilayered mix, but there’s nothing overly complicated about its construction. If there were any specific elements I would want to change, my alterations would start and end with the balance between the bass and the piano. The bassline is a little heavy for what I think this arrangement needed, but at the same time, I can see where Colson was trying to prevent the backend of the mix from sounding dreadfully light and tinny (as has been the case in similarly synthesized instrumental concepts, especially those being used by her rivals this year). The piano has a yearning that it has to impart here in order for us to really get the guts of the emotionality in the lyrics, and in putting it as close to the vocal as possible without overlapping the two, it’s clear that producers circumvented the very notion of critics calling this song overly surreal. Colson doesn’t seem like the definitive rebel in “Hurt Me,” but a conformist she most certainly is not.
Self-aware, lyrically unfiltered and sonically multidimensional to the degree of existing well outside the lines of what the mainstream pop community is pushing these days, Taylor Colson’s “Hurt Me” is a definite masterpiece for those whom it was originally created to satisfy. Pop is one of the most fascinatingly unpredictable – and difficult to sub-categorize – genres in all of music, and even though the American circuit is probably producing the sexiest content on the map right now, they’re also bringing forth an artistically intriguing generation of pop poets like Colson who have the ability to shape things moving forward (for the positive, mind you).
“Hurt Me” isn’t the full-package; I actually think this is just a sneak preview of what its creator is bringing to the game in 2020, and though I can’t speak for every other critic at the moment, she’s piqued by interest for sure.
Troy Johnston