REVIEW: Daryl Mosley — A Life Well Lived (SINGLE)
The collective hunger for honest Americana that hasn’t been born of some corporate conglomerate fantasy in Nashville has never been quite as strong as it is in 2023, and you needn’t look much further than the underground beat to see exactly what I’m talking about. Up-and-comers like Daryl Mosley are changing the narrative for the country music genre, and in his new single “A Life Well Lived,” this singer/songwriter makes it more than clear how disinterested he is in following a commercial path with his music. This might be his lifestyle, but the material he’s creating is hardly made with financial gain as the primary source of motivation.
There’s a softness to Mosley’s vocal in this track countered with a sternness to his narrative that makes his words all the more obviously heartfelt from beginning to end, and although it’s not the only feature of note here, it’s easily my favorite part of “A Life Well Lived.” He isn’t afraid to utilize a fragility in this melody that other players might just as soon have tried to bury with instrumental charisma, and to me, this move indicates a songwriting efficiency present in his skillset that no serious country fan can afford to scoff at right now.
The harmonies here are indeed some of the more brooding I’ve heard in an independent release this season, and I think they do a lot to emphasize the emotionality of the lyrics in general. I don’t know that there’s any way you can discount the impact the tonal elements have in “A Life Well Lived” just because of how significantly they influence our interpretation of the narrative even in the most cursory of listening sessions spent with this single. It’s fluid, but not overstated in any capacity.
I love the tempo of the rhythm here, being it advances the sincerity of every verse in a style that no other component of the composition could have. Instead of trying to gallop away from his vulnerabilities, Mosley seems more than intent on drawing them to the surface in this piece and exploring what they mean in quite a poetic manner. This isn’t the first brilliantly-written country track I’ve had the chance to take a look at in 2023, but it’s certainly one of the only releases I’ve heard out of the American underground to have left me impressed with its songwriter.
“A Life Well Lived” is an unquestionably stirring track from an artist worth taking some time to examine, and if you’re as picky a country listener as I am I think you’re going to be very excited at what Daryl Mosley is working on at the moment. His is a brand of singer/songwriter both familiar and entirely foreign to the outlandishly alternative end the country genre has been producing in the past few years, and if provided the proper venue through which to connect with the masses, I believe Mosley is going to find himself very well-received with the music and the emotion he’s performing with right now.
Colin Jordan
