REVIEW: Dorsten — To the River (SINGLE)
Stunningly soft and undisputedly folky in spirit — despite their strong indie rock overtones — the lyrics in Dorsten’s “To the River” are made all the more vital by the incredible voice through which they’re delivered to us this fall. If you’ve been keeping up with Americana lately, you’ve probably already heard a little bit about this Arizona duo and their magnetizing sound. Building off of the ongoing trend in crossover folk-pop, Dorsten issues a statement single in “To the River” that is almost certain to get you interested in the non-Nashville, indie Americana sound gaining steam in the underground.
URL: https://dorstenmusic.com/
As much as this track centers on the vocals from the female half of Dorsten, there’s a lot of extra kick to this groove that makes it almost perfect for moving your hips. There’s a moderate sway to the percussion that makes it clear we’re listening to something with countrified roots, but it never interrupts the steady flow of the vocal harmony, which is the constant linchpin holding all of the other components in the mix together. The melodies are the glue here, while the composition itself is a masterful puzzle of emotionality and self-assertiveness, both of which have been largely absent from mainstream music in the last couple of years.
The string play in “To the River” acts as a wonderful buffer between the beat and our two players, and had it not been given as much of a polished sound in the grander scheme of things, I don’t know that the track would feel as pop-friendly as it ultimately does in this scenario. What separates the crossovers from the plain pop artists in this game has little to do with surface-level aesthetics and almost everything to do with compositional integrity, and underneath it all, this song has the bones of a folk-rock ballad that has simply been supercharged for the FM dial.
Try as you might, I don’t think you’re going to be able to locate an instance of hesitancy on the part of Dorsten in this latest release; from start to finish they’re swaggering, but they’ve also got more than a few moments of dominating the other melodic elements in this song. Theirs is a sound that is swelling beyond the control of these small-scale releases, which tells me that they’re ready to finally record a full-length studio album sooner rather than later.
Constant growth is essential in both the alternative Americana and folk-rock genres, but this isn’t much of a concern for Dorsten — they’re capitalizing on the momentum that launched their career just a few years ago in “Sea Salt” with the release of “To the River,” and judging from the ambitiousness of the material they’ve recorded so far, I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon. This is a good time to be a fan of the emerging Arizona scene in the American underground; not only because of young talent like these two, but because of the amalgamation of influences and creative possibilities they offer a new chapter in hipster music’s long and storied history.
Colin Jordan
