“Where You Gonna Go?” by The Duke of Randwick is unique among alternative rock songs in that, while it sports many influences, it has a sound all its own. Drawing from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, it feels kind of nostalgic but doesn’t fail to surprise and delight you in new ways as well. The vocals are crisply distinctive. The chord progression is classic but newly incorporated. The instrumentation is, quite frankly, mesmerizing. In a world so saturated with new music, this is a song unlike anything you’ve heard before.
With a few pleasantly crude strums of an electric guitar, we’re thrown headfirst into the song. A tambourine and jovial drum groove hold the rhythmic integrity with a loose, relaxed grip. The lyrics come forward boldly, sung in chest voice with a slightly raspy timbre. We float through the verse easily–not too fast, not too slow–until, with a recitation of the hook, we’re thrust into a quickfire chorus. Every instrument flies into double time as the singer practically screams the lyrics. But just as soon as this frenetic moment began, it fizzles out into another sweet, mellifluous verse.
From then on, the heaviness of the chorus and the dreaminess of the verses start to merge, imbuing the rest of the song with this feverish, hypnotic atmosphere. It’s punk. It’s psychedelic. It’s everything we know and love about rock music rolled into one. Be sure to give The Duke of Randwick a listen and a follow, because there’s more where that came from.
Written by Alyce Lindberg
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