Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
As a non-musician, I can only imagine how difficult it is to take the two disparate elements of songwriting — music and lyrics — and make them seamless, as though they burst into existence simultaneously and instantly merged harmoniously.
That’s always been my way of identifying a “good” song. Not even a song I like, necessarily, but one where you give a nod to the artist because the craftsmanship is on point.
To clarify, I do like the track we’re premiering here: “Soft Side” from Milwaukee shoegaze-ish five-piece Standstill. I think you’ll like it, too, because the quintet really nailed the fit between their economical lyrics (48 words in the entire song) and instrumentation that doesn’t rely solely on vibes — a trap easily sprung in the shoegaze/dream pop genre.
As the band put it in their bio, “Standstill believes that a song is an experience and their sound can create an escape — their dream world.” The opening moments of “Soft Side” make that happen by easing you into another realm via gentle synth and Aliya Moore’s beckoning vocals that introduce a relationship living in the middle ground between what is needed and what actually exists:
Open wide, collect the rain
Stay inside, it’s all the same
I will lay this bed I’ve made
Twin-sized frame, I fan your flames
“There is a tension that happens when we expect more from someone who can’t meet our needs or give us more,” the band explained. “In this song, there is a self-awareness that the protagonist is engaging in something that isn’t good for them, but they do it anyway. This one-sided relationship can make us stretch too far, become jaded, lose our softness and turn us cold.
“This song ends with the protagonist choosing themself and doing what they know they needed to do a long time ago.”
Standstill don’t need a wheelbarrow of lyrics to get the point across because of how the music carries the narrative just as effectively. Moore sings about saying goodbye as the song builds, recedes slightly and then busts loose, led by a tension-relieving guitar part. It’s an emotional pressure valve and satisfying conclusion to a listening experience you can get lost in for a little under four minutes.
Take that time to enjoy “Soft Side” using the player at the top of the page, or catch it on 88Nine throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30 and 6:30 p.m). The track will also be part of Standstill’s self-titled debut EP set for release this Friday, May 30, and they’ll celebrate that same day with a show at The Pocket in Riverwest.
