I’ve been hearing that Macklemore has been making some changes. After years of collaborating with Ryan Lewis since 2009, the two, apparently, have gone their separate ways after success had failed to happen for their most recent collaborations. With a pocket full of ambition, Macklemore – again apparently - decided to walk new avenues.
When I saw that a new audio was dropped for a song called “Glorious”, I immediately expected something completely different from his previous work, but I was surprised that the song has actually kept the same feel all of his bigger hits have as well.
The song starts out slow and is given an even more personal touch by the picture of Macklemore with his daughter used as the song cover (on YouTube, anyway). There’s really not much I can say about his performance on the song. It’s sounds recognizably like a Macklemore, so it delivers exactly what you would expect.
There are times that this songs reminds me, personally, of “Can’t Hold Us”. The bits building into the chorus, for instance, with the intensification building up in his pace, make me feel like it’s going to lead straight into the “Can’t Hold Us” chorus, but instead the song features female singer-songwriter Skylar Grey. She’s often appeared on many hip hop songs and even wrote a couple of big hits for others.
As you probably know by now, I have a preference for a mix between rap and singing, so her hook is a welcomed change for me within the song. Still, it’s also an interesting change. After that massive buildup, Skylar’s hook initially seems to slows the song down a bit before having the music return to its regular rhythm. It’s only a moment, but the unpredictability of it was a bit of a surprise to me, when I first heard the song.
The chorus is easy to get into and the raps are pronounced clearly, so anyone can follow the story and everyone is sure to be able to relate the general topic of the song, which I think sums up Macklemore’s appeal to the mainstream audience. The response to this song, does look like he’s back to where he wanted to be. On the road to more glory.
