Amidst the animations that fill our screen with a colorful scene in the new music video for America’s Sweetheart’s “Face to Face,” it becomes overwhelmingly clear that this band isn’t interested in flirting with the same aesthetics as many of their contemporaries are. Buried within the familiar cadence of the swing and texture of the harmonies we find America’s Sweetheart sounding more relaxed and melodic than ever before; their energy both infectious and rather commanding even in its more subtle capacities. “Face to Face” is a fantastic showcase of their current talents, but most of all, their potential moving forward.

I love the casual vibe the vocals have in this song; from their presence we get an added sense that everything here is unforced and naturally gelling together. There are no synthetic trappings tying together some of the more eccentric points in the arrangement, but instead a reliance on the gentle nature of the rhythm to keep everything in one cohesive piece. America’s Sweetheart aren’t into filler, even if it means putting a little extra thought into their own work and that of the cultural collective in general (which is impressive all on its own).

There’s a very elegant feel to this master mix that I couldn’t help but point out, mostly because of how well it presents the organically warm tones in the instrumentation to us. We don’t have to focus on anything out of place in order to connect with the most natural point of release outside of the chorus, and while it’s artsier to do the opposite in their scene at the moment, I don’t see anything aesthetically wrong with this alternative approach, either. Simple can be sophisticated to, really, and if that was being questioned by the consensus before “Face to Face,” I don’t think it will be in the wake of this track’s success.

These lyrics are delivered just softly enough to the listeners as to be one of the smoother elements in the grander scheme of things, but they still manage to pack quite the poetic punch when isolated from the other components in the song. The weight of the words here is potent and makes the narrative (and the mood it’s being born out of) all the more inescapable for us to encounter, which is difficult to preserve when also trying to make the vocals one of the lighter parts of an ascent towards the climax.

Fans of a jaded mainstream rock sound really needn’t bother checking out America’s Sweetheart this month; for in all honesty its three minutes and forty-eight seconds worth of audio were pretty much tailor-made to the tastes of those looking for erudite songcraft right now. I’m impressed enough with this band to stick around and see what kind of a full-length record they can produce in response to the acclaim they’re going to receive for “Face to Face,” and I think you’re going to understand precisely why when you give this song – and its music video – just a bit of your attention.

John McCall