Vancouver's pop surrealist Matías Roden's new cut goes beyond melody and rhythm. In his latest single, "Angels In the Night," Roden delivers an intimate yet universal ballad that turns sorrow into grace. This emotional single was inspired by a close friend who survived the London Bridge terror attack in 2017 and is as much a love letter to the human spirit as it is to the city where he was born.
A U.K.-born, Peru-raised, and culturally mashed Vancouver resident, Roden has always been a global citizen, which is evident in his music. "Angels in the Night," then, embodies his journey as a quilt that plunders synth-pop and incorporates the emotional frailty of art pop, the depth of soul, and the grandeur of power balladry. The result is a song that breathes, bleeds, and, ultimately, bears you up.
The difference between this song and the other is restraint. Produced by Canadian musician and visual artist Louise Burns, the instrumentation is sparse but no less accomplished in its delivery. Its eerie textures, straight out of the 90s, provide the room Roden requires for his voice to glide and glide. In it, he hones the kind of bare-bones emotional intimacy of Sinéad O'Connor while being nakedly honest in the way that the late SOPHIE was on the emotional bombast "It's Okay to Cry." If there's anything derivative about it, it's an imitation because Roden's voice and vision are undeniably, unmistakably his.
In its lyrics, the song doesn't sensationalize trauma. Instead, it ponders the emotional collateral, the randomness of survival, the guilt, the gratitude, and the quiet strength required to keep going. Roden ennobles pains, giving it form and voice in poems of restraint and delivery more cinematic than rhyme. "Angels In the Night" isn't merely another brooding ballad. It's a testament to resilience, a love letter to memory, and an inspiration for anyone who has felt the silent pain of shared tragedy. On this, Matías Roden proves he's a rising voice in pop and an artist capable of catching what words alone often can't.
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