Indie Music: Nick de la Hoyde, "Devotion"

 by Germar Derron

On "Devotion," Nick de la Hoyde remains consistent while also showing tremendous growth. And that growth in no way diminishes his past efforts. I still regularly bump, "By My Side." 

On seemingly every song, de la Hoyde portrays a unique ability to sound like the past, present, and future of music simultaneously. And "Devotion" is not an exception. It may be the rule. This song, like many by the de la Hoyde brothers (writers and producers), is genre-blending and time-traveling. The vocal at times sounds like today's biggest hits. At other times the vocal sounds like 2010's biggest hit. That performance and processing--production--push the track into a sort of instant timeless nostalgia. But the blending and era homaging go well beyond a pretty vocal.

The instrumental arrangement and mix are equally reminiscent of . . . a lot. It's 40 years of film scores, 20 years of soul, and 15 years of pop. But this proprietary blend of sound is not obsfuscating. It makes the track accessible to everyone, and evergreen.

The de la Hoydes are experienced. And that experience is explosively evident all over "Devotion." The sweetest example of the years of writing, recording, performing, producing, and mixing occurs at the end of the song on a single note and word--"you." On a song about devotion to you, falling for you, that includes lyrics "nothing without you. . . ." They understood the assignment. That one final word, "you," is broken, textured, contoured, and still tinged with the track's orchestral tails.

This is good.