Coming from the high from her album from last year, fueled with pop-punk electricity, WILLOW returns with a new single, ‘<maybe> it’s my fault’ which continues the direction she’d taken before, exploring new sounds for the musician.

As soon as the song begins, fans of WILLOW might find it to be a bit familiar. Slightly overdriven electric guitars leading the main riff with wallowing vocals – the pop punk continues, right? The essence of the energy she carried in her previous record is certainly felt, especially in that intro, but once the groove fully sets in with the distorted guitar, the rhythmic chugging riff that takes over will catch most off guard. The dancing drums contrasting it almost give it a Marilyn Manson-feel for a brief moment, especially with WILLOW’s vocal performance in that section. The chorus that follows is extremely melodious, against a stark contrast with the rhythm-focused verse beforehand. The melodies are contagious and beautifully delivered. The song continues in a verse-chorus section until its outro, where the tune takes a dark turn. Screaming with a heavily distorted filter, ‘<maybe> it’s my fault’ breaks into a full-on alternative-metal breakdown, bringing the song to a close on that extremely heavy tone. That section alone really paints the nu-metal hints that were scattered in the instrumentation up to that moment in a much brighter picture. By the end, there’s no contest, this may as well be a Deftones song.

WILLOW struck gold once again with the exploration of a new direction. Though this is very much within the same lane as her previous efforts, it’s a new direction nonetheless, one that begs to see a continuation. Where could the singer possibly go from there? WILLOW seems to be going more and more towards the metal side of things with each release, and a LOT of people are here for it. I sure am.

Author: Nicholas Gaudet

Music producer and writer from Dieppe, Canada.