Oliver Jordan’s ‘Secret 13’ – A Gritty Lament of Shadows and Light
‘Secret 13’ is a single from Oliver Jordan that builds in a dark and grunge-like way. Its patterns grow from one another, the rich bass informing the calamity of the guitar, how it pulses and groans above the percussion that cuts through it all in quick stabs, sharp upthrusts, killer kicks. There is some light — synths and pads break up the storm, spots of sun hit the floor and warm our feet, but the gloom is still masquerading and it still holds the floor. Though dark and dank, this is the kind of music that will connect to you when you need it, it has the power to take you to a different place, a past place, a place of life and love and promises, broken or otherwise. When the vocals kick in, you’re no longer alone.
Oliver Jordan has moulded emotion into grand shapes, breaking them into overt structures and uses them to construct a song of the soul. Singing over such a beast of an instrumental would be a challenge for everyone, but Jordan understands the music, they can feel the music, and they know where they can slot in to keep things ticking. The vocals cut a deep groove down the middle of the track and soon enough the music is wrapped around them, letting them lead, letting them take hold of the melody and warp it to their shape. The song comes alive then, and its eyes find that spotted sun for the first time.
Indie singles that take notes from grunge and layer in synth tones will always be fascinating to me. They are abrupt and honest and they directly translate what one human is feeling into song. You can get lost in that cacophony of empathy for millennia. ‘Secret 13’ is a song about what perhaps we cannot know. Our own subconscious, our own morality, the things we say without saying them. Oliver Jordan is putting it all out there for us to hear, and it’s wonderfully affecting.
Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie, LoFi, Singer-Songwriter
Mood: Reflective, Poignant, Hopeful, Introspective
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