Doug Gatta, in his newly released track, "Endless Summer," combines the glossy shimmer of pop rock with the raw energy of indie and alternative rock to create some truly introspective music. At first glance, the song appears to be a carefree, upbeat single for late-night drives and sunshine-soaked playlists. "Endless Summer" is a showdown against the way we seek dopamine highs in a world awash in distractions, your phone vibrating, your social feeds reloading, your content consumption spiraling out of control, and the deadly pull of addiction.
In the song, he refers to the "cloud you're under, not an endless summer," and in reminding us of what might feel like never-ending delights, he is really just suggesting that it is a cloud holding us back. Having an energetic, infectious, yet subtle edge musically. It remains radio-friendly thanks to its pop-rock sensibility, but never feels over-polished due to the indie-rock grit. There is a tension in the arrangement, a brightness versus shadow push and pull that is reflected primarily in the thematic content of the song itself. You can sense the liberty in a sunshine-bound nesting with an insatiable longing for tangible reality.
And, when they hit that sweet spot between emotive and urgent as Doug Gatta does with this vocal delivery, there's just something really tangible about the openness. The guitars interpret the production, challenging yet never cluttered, exhaling to reveal rhythmic backgrounds that insert the bass and provide punishing drive. One of those songs that you can take in for the sound alone and never really hear the introspection behind it until you sit with it for some time. In reviving the rock-inflected pop that has fallen out of favor in recent years, Gatta demonstrates a sense of depth that can penetrate past the surface, prompting you to pull away from your screens and consider what you are truly pursuing. It sticks and it lingers on, just like that perfect-seeming but actually not so relatively never-ending summer day.
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