Wake Of Destruction - The Deep End

Hear The Track Here

Now if anyone other than Omar Chavez (aka Wake of Destruction) had lined me up on a blind date with a (gulp) 'power ballad', I'd have told them to get the **** out of here. Im not, as you know, kindly disposed to the easily disposable and I find that few 'power ballads' are either powerful or ballads. Soporific snorers maybe, or so saccharine that your teeth fall out of your wide-open-in-disbelief mouth. Now I'm an old geezer and, as such, I need all the teeth I can get which is (but one) of many reasons why ballads and I will never be happy together. That would be like putting Scrooge and Christmas together and altogether far to silly a concept to be dealt with here. Suffice to say, obviously Wake of Destruction does something right - if such a thing is possible - with (makes quote mark for the very, very last time) 'power ballads'

Three Must Have's this year should tell you something.

Not only is Wake of Destruction's musical stomping ground 1980's electro-pop a la Depeche Mode, Howard Jones et al, he's amazingly good at it too. As a songwriter, musician and vocalist, this Miami based one man band is extremely impressive, there aren't many musicians who are that good at ALL the disciplines needed to ride the indie music beast successfully. Personally, I like the man because he turns out killer songs in the time honoured pop fashion, something - like pianos and/or cowbells - you can never get enough of. Anyone with a halfway decent pair of ears will recognise the quality embodied in this track, and once the vocal kicks in they'd be no doubt hooked. It's a fact that anyone who has heard WoD doesn't forget the voice quickly.

I've already used a couple of 1980's names to describe his style but the vocal treatment on The Deep End is more Bryan Ferry/Robert Palmer than anything from the electro-pop world. The arrangement and style is pure Depeche Mode though, when they were really hitting their form so the song is much more dense and detailed than your conventional pop opus. Just the way I like them, as it happens. I don't think The Deep End is as strong a song as some I have heard from this source this year but it towers over most of the competition in terms of quality.

Highly Recommended electro-pop 'power ballad'.