Johnny The Hobby Artist – “Can You See”
Johnny The Hobby Artist – “Can You See” – Single Review
Alrighty…let’s see what we’ve got here today…
I’ll start by saying I like what I’m hearing in this new tributary single from Johnny The Hobby Artist. I think there are a lot of redeeming qualities to be found in this song overall, and I dig the sentiment that exists as the inspiration to “Can You See” – it’s dedicated to “the mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and nieces that endured” through hard times and bad times. Ultimately, that’s beautiful source material, and an excellent place to find inspiration, not only in music, but quite likely in life for most of us as well.
So! That’s all positive for sure. The sound is as well…I’d be the first to tell ya that there are absolutely stellar things happening in the music, and I felt like the production on “Can You See” contained the kind of crystal clarity you’d wanna find in a song like this one too. Lots of great stuff to be said about all of that…from the structure of its design, to the sound selection on “Can You See,” Johnny The Hobby Artist has put together an enticing, endearing, entertaining, and engaging cut that people will wanna listen to. When you listen to the mix, you’ll find everything sitting in the perfect spot from the lead vocals to the background elements, which gives “Can You See” an impeccable balance between the parts that make it, and pretty much everything you’ll hear gets its own moment in the spotlight at some point along the way, which I really like about this song. Sometimes you’ll listen and you’ll notice the electro-percussion the most…sometimes it’ll be the vocals…sometimes it’ll be the remarkable things happening the background like the thunder claps or additional backing vocals/samples…sometimes it’ll be the sweetness of the guitar-based hook in the music…there’s a lot to dig about what you’ll find in “Can You See” and Johnny’s done a stellar job in bringing all of these aspects of his single together as one.
Where I think that this single becomes a bit more interesting in terms of critiquing it is, we have to look at how much movement there really is and wonder if there was a bit more opportunity in “Can You See” than is currently being explored, or if it will end up feeling like a genuinely complete track to the people listening out there. If I’m being entirely honest with ya, even though I find everything I’m hearing to be very pleasant and enjoyable, I’d listen to an argument that would point out this three-plus minutes is also a bit on the one-note side of things when it comes right down to it too. Like, the best example I can give you in terms of what I’m talking about is right there in the shift between the verse to chorus – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say the lack of one. Now…don’t get me wrong, at the end of the day if everything you’re listening to sounds good, that would give any track a chance at achieving a victory in the court of public opinion. All I’m saying is that a single like “Can You See” reveals the opportunity for an artist like Johnny to evolve in his craft even further, and y’all regular readers know I consider it to be my job to challenge people to do more where the potential exists, always. So yeah…if I’m being real with you, I’d tell ya that “Can You See” sounds like the beginning of an even more remarkable idea still yet to come…and that there’s still a lot of space to take a song like this to a whole other level. Again, if you’re going back to the main vocal melody of this song, there’s not a dramatic amount of difference to be found in the way that the verses are sung in comparison to the chorus, and the music in those two main aspects of the song are basically presented with the same things happening in that regard as well. The effect is that it ends up appearing like the dynamics aren’t being explored as much as they could be, and Johnny The Hobby Artist will have to assess whether or not that’s really what he was going for, or if he might have wrapped this up a bit too early in the writing before pushing record. If you were to tell me that “Can You See” is intended to be the intro to another song on an album, or a part one of two, I’d tell ya that’s the right place for a cut like this to thrive, and that idea would totally make sense to me. As a standalone cut, again, I have no issues with the way things are sung or the way that they sound, but I can always acknowledge that less structural dynamics included in a song generally tends to affect its longevity and how many times folks will tend to listen to something. Essentially it’s like the repetition of multiple listens ends up being included into this one experience in the way it’s designed – make sense?
To be entirely fair, of course I’ve done my best to road test this theory by spinning this single multiple times since I got a copy of it…and to be truthful, right now it seems very resistant to the normal wear and tear of a situation like this where a song contains less dynamics on a structural level. Presently, I’d tell ya that putting “Can You See” on repeat actually generates a very mesmerizing & soul-soothing vibe that I feel like a whole bunch of people will respond to positively…so I might be worrying about the design of this tune for no reason at all, or time will eventually tell the whole story…that’s harder to say. I only ever have the tracks I’ve got on my playlist for a fairly short amount of time before I’m onto the next as a music journalist, so here in this smaller sample size of repeat listens, I can say definitively that I continued to enjoy the hypnotic feeling this melody puts on you as you keep on spinning it. In that sense, the noticeably static design of the song works to its advantage, because nothing is in the mix that’ll shake or stir you out of that comforting hypnotic effect, and I’d readily tell ya that’s actually quite nice. I might hear the opportunity to do more with a song like this personally, but I still like what I currently hear in it as it is now, and I feel like the tangible sweetness you’ll find will resonate with a lot of hearts and minds out there listening.
Find more music by Johnny The Hobby Artist at Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5iFj4c3EOwDdqPJCGVGJqg
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