It’s safe to say that London Grammar’s brand new offering is not at all what I expected. Although Hannah Reid’s rich, strong vocal remains the main event, the song has a slow burning depth and maturity that sets it apart from Metal & Dust and If You Wait. It’s a beautiful, complex track with the band’s signature classical meets contemporary feel. However, Rooting for You takes on a really unique shape that is closer to free verse than their previous, structured pieces.
A beautifully rich atmosphere is created from the opening bars, featuring a dreamy electronic landscape, seamlessly accompanied by gentle guitar melodies and warm, subtle strings and piano sounds. It’s the kind of song with so many layers and so many unexpected, yet satisfying developments that you’re sad when it draws to a close. I’ll admit, on the first listen, I wasn’t completely sold. I was looking for a quick fix, and that is something that this song is not. Rather than a radio friendly, catchy replica of what already exists, the song is an intricate fusion of genres and sounds that satisfies a really unique combination of requirements – a technically flawless vocal, a beautifully emotive soundscape which seamlessly falls in and out of electronic and live instrumentation, and waxes and wanes subtly as the song develops.
It’s a bit of a masterpiece, really, and an exciting foretaste of things to come.
