Untouchable

This new drop from Alexander IV and Jono McCleery leans in with a soft knock and an earthy, indie-soul groove with just enough swing to make the bittersweet feel bouncy. The pair let the track sway in with a crunchy two-step and acoustic melody spinning steadily in a loop. With less club-thump pressure and more cassette-framed warmth, Joris Feiertag (the Dutch-based sound provider behind the Alexander IV alias) pulls back from the thump of club walls and into a softer headspace on this offering. In both the beat and the singing, the duo lets space and air do the heavy lifting. Nothing drags. Instead, the rhythm jogs at a nice clip like a boom-bap drummer filling in for a folk-pop outfit. 

The vocals ease in slow like breaths warming cold hands. Jono is talking to himself, maybe—in a delicate tone that traces the inside of his chest before slipping into the mic. "I woke up to sun, and nothing’s the same,” he admits, drained but still steady on his feet. His delivery is deliberately low and nuanced, like he's trying to get something off of his chest but not risk waking up the person who needs to hear it the most. Sidekick Music, the label behind the single, called "Untouchable" “...a delicate blend of warm guitar, indie pop vibes, and raw emotion" in a recent IG post. They weren’t wrong. There’s real gravity in the head-nodding drift of this gem.