Confyde’s latest single ‘Anchor’ is out now

Confyde is a musical project led by Nottingham singer-songwriter Martin Jackson, which exploded back into life at the oddest of times - during the Covid19 pandemic. Vastly experienced, Martin performed on the prestigious Pepsi Max Stage at the Download Festival in 2013, along with support slots with Reef, Chuck Mosley, TesseracT, Nick Oliveri and Toby Jepson. Most recently he completed a tour of Australasia as lead singer for the UK's number one System of a Down tribute band, where he works with members of Dragonforce, Cradle of Filth, Breed 77 and The Sisters of Mercy.

Back in July 2020 we reviewed Martin’s single Don’t Like Awake, his first single for four years, awarding it as creditable score of 9.0 You can read our review here: https://www.livewiremusic.org/home/26112019/confydeproject11072020

Following on from Don’t Lie Awake The latest single, Anchor, continues the journey of loss and uncertainty through the pandemic, as millions of people over the world are facing eviction and worse - told through the lens of Jackson's own eviction story, when his whole career as a fulltime musician was crushed by lockdown. It encapsulates the fear and sadness that comes with being forced out of your home and feeling like you have no control over one of your most basic needs as a human being.

Don't Lie Awake was a barrage of heavy metal riffs, soaring melodies and unexpected twist and turns. But with Anchor, suddenly the jagged metal riffs are gone, and instead we find subtle fingerstyle acoustic guitars and jazzy progressions underpin Jackson's unmistakable voice. The new single certainly delivers n Martin’s promise that he would remain unpredictable, and that with each new release he’d keep shaking things up.

From the heaviness of Don’t Lie Awake, this is much more stripped back, and a delightful unplugged sound that will appeal to so many of his fans and something they will have known him for previously.

The lyrics tell an emotional and personal tale of the difficulty of being evicted, packing you’re your life. As usual with Martin’s work the lyrics paint an exceptionally powerful picture of the emotions and feelings involved. Not just the stress and abruptness of the process “Abandoning this precious thing becomes a race against the clock” but also expressively communicating the deep emotional sense of loss of part of your life, part of you “It’s become part of me… I can’t bare to leave this behind”. It conveys the sense of helplessness so well too “pleading for a little more time”. You really get a sense of the pain and loss involved.

Not everyone will love this one…. But then who does love everything ?! I really enjoyed it, but it does evolve and embrace many different styles through it’s course. Elements are quite jazzy, others much more experimental. There’s also a prog rock feel to it in places as well. The vocals, as ever from Martin are exceptional, displaying an incredible range with some excellent high tone delivery. Again, this may not appeal to all. But in some ways, for me, I think this mix of styles and experimental nature of the track works really well, and kind of fits with the emotional rollercoaster of a journey the song takes you on through the trauma of losing your home. It shifts around and changes suddenly and it reflects the erratic nature of emotions and the effects of loss. Hey, I may be totally wrong, but it sounds good, and it works for me.

Anchor is accompanied by two other tracks with The Leech, with a fantastic and much heavier rock feel to it, and Cut Adrift – Anchor II an eerie spoken word version of Anchor, with a wonderful atmospheric almost cinematic tonal backdrop, with elements in it reminiscent of the Bladerunner soundtrack in places.

A challenging but rewarding track, one that so effectively expresses the emotions experienced with eviction, and a slid 8.5 from LiveWire Music.