Mayday is the follow-up to Australian music artist Anirban Jee ’s last two singles Deep Down feat. Mary Ann Van Der Horst (2014 X-Factor artist) in 2016 and Undecided feat. Judd Field in 2014. Both tracks received some attention from commercial and community radio, adding to Anirban’s seemingly ever-expanding list of awards, which include: Songwriter of the year 2018 (Australian Songwriting Contest), Songwriter of the Year 2017 (SongsAlive Australia), Winner of the International Category at the 38th Australian Songwriting Contest 2018, Winner of the Ballad Category at the 38th Australian Songwriting Contest 2018, Winner of Contemporary POP Category at the 35th Australian Songwriting Contest 2017 and many more. The track begins modestly enough, incorporating the stylistic nuances of old school R&B and smooth funk with dashes of breezy pop. This last element is what transforms Mayday’s mellow tale of relationship woe into a more viable mainstream record.
Anirban’s vocal performance adds to this, with its fine low tones in the verses that eventually leap into more persuasive higher registers in the chorus; a technique required because the melodic notation demanded it. But it is this change that provides the strongest argument for the track; the chorus utilises the triggering notes and affiliated chords to create a memorable, well-articulated musical motif.
The lyric adheres to this ascent into this accessible territory, firstly, by focusing on a relationship under strain, a relatable subject, a destabilisation the narrator hopes to heal, providing a reasonable defence for the disquiet, as is clearly outlined in these lines: True lovers fight / When passions ignite. And secondly, by wrapping it up neatly in a resolve that spotlights the metaphorical mettle of the title. Mayday is deceptive for its adoption of retro elements, its cruisy, jazz-inflected features, like a cross-pollination of Toto circa Rosanna and Lou Rawls, yet it’s quite camouflaged; it’s ostensibly an adeptly crafted pop song that has a rewarding dynamic at its heart with a lyric that focuses on a subject most will relate to, and it has a clean, almost pure production, courtesy of Australian producer and engineer Simon Cohen (Justin Bieber, Will.I.Am, Troye Sivan, Urthboy, Guy Sebastian, Vera Blue).
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