photo by Micah Wood
Written by Hunter Craighill
Following a busy and very productive 2019, Modern Nomad dropped his first single of 2020, “the Clock,” on February 21. Overall, the track is par for course with the rest of his music, maintaining the same elements of a groovy bassline, airy synths, and chorus guitar that grace the vast majority of his rapidly growing catalog. As always, his instrumental tracks are layered masterfully, each one having its own place within the mix. The sound is cohesive and clean; no single instrument overpowers anything else, nor does it feel cluttered or muddy despite the number of layers involved. The progression is led by the synth key chords with the bass and guitars floating lines underneath, leaving enough space for his dreamy vocals to pick melodies out of the air and connect them with harmonies to fill out the track. With that said, his vocal harmonies on this track are far more complex and developed than much of his previous work, which gives the song as a whole a lot more depth. At the same time it does not feel overproduced, an easy thing to do when working with heavy reverb and chorus effects. From start to finish, the song makes sense. It flows with lyrical and musical ease, giving relaxing melodies with the right amount of instrumental breaks. For Modern Nomad, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If he can produce as many singles as he did last year with each one on par with “the Clock,” he could be looking at a very lucrative and very exciting year.