In “One More,” rising star duo Better Fires shines like a diamond in the rough and successfully mixes two unique styles of pop in a melodic marriage that you have to hear for yourself to fully appreciate. Better Fires straddles a bumpy bassline with the swagger of studio pros, adding in a dash of pop here and a pinch of postmodern indie rock there, all the while staying relaxed and focused in their delivery. Their peers could stand to learn a lot from this cool, calm, and collected attitude, but that’s not the real reason why you should pursue “One More” this season.
This single’s layered master mix was crafted to please any ear, and it doesn’t ask a whole lot out of us in exchange for the wealth of harmonic colors that it dispatches so seamlessly. Instead of positioning the guitars next to the drums and the vocals, they’re on top of everything, guiding the rhythm of the song with their urban swing. Better Fires is in the eye of the storm, conducting an orchestra of textures with as much emotion as you would see in a parent nurturing a newborn child.
The guitar’s vibrant melodies are quite fetching, but they’re a bit too loud for my taste at the midpoint of this track. This part of the arrangement gets a little clustered, but just when it seems as though everything is going to come apart at the seams, Better Fires comes swooping in with a majestic lyrical groove that instantly rights the ship and gets us back on an even trajectory. This duo never hesitates in their attack here, and even when they’re coming after the verses with a mighty zeal, they avoid any overindulgent temptations that come their way.
There’s no competition between the players comprising Better Fires in “One More;” in fact, they sound more like a well-oiled, practiced machine instead of mere session musicians employed for a joint concept project. The harmony that they strike up in this track is much stronger than what I was anticipating to hear (especially considering that this is the first time I’ve sat down with this band), and I think that if they were to go in a slightly more experimental direction, there’s virtually no limit to what they could accomplish in the studio together. This pair has a chemistry that could support pop, rock, and even something just a bit more surreal, and it would be a shame to see their talents go unutilized in a bid to retain an exclusive audience in the future.
If this is a taste of what’s to come next from Better Fires, then there’s no question that they’re going to become a very popular act in the contemporary pop underground as 2023 begins to take shape. They’re playing with so much heart in “One More” and reminding longtime pop fans that the genre is hardly dead – contrarily, it would appear that it has never been more alive than it is today, in the midst of a cultural evolution for music in general.
Heather Savage
