“You Can Cry Tonight” by Siobhan

In her new single “You Can Cry Tonight,” a forward-moving rhythm and gilded vocals introduce us to yet another romantic layer of Siobhan’s sound – arguably her most endearing thus far – and enrapture just about anyone within earshot of the ensuing harmony. Although structured in a balladic format, there’s a restlessness to the groove that we open up with in this track that makes it feel like a club anthem as much as it is a slow song. Siobhan could all three and a half minutes of play here with little more than her presence, but she instead takes a more complex approach to the arrangement and winds up turning in what just might be the best exhibition of her talents to hit record store shelves to date. 

“You Can Cry Tonight” is quite lyrical, but the key difference between this piece and the lot of verse-centric content her alternative R&B contemporaries have been producing in the last couple of years lies in the lack of insularity in her narrative. Rather than coming to us from an entirely first-person perspective, her poeticisms lean towards the surreal, inviting us to step into her shoes and perceive emotionality as she does from one line to the next. The rhythm supports this elegantly but not with an overt sense of efficiency, which is another area where Siobhan is going out of her way in establishing her sound separate from that of the mainstream. She’s a unique performer, and this is the kind of track that showcases some of her best skills. 

The mastering here is phenomenal, and had Chey de Los not been at the controls of the mix I don’t know that we would get as polished a product as we’re getting out of this piece. There’s definitely a lot of chemistry on both sides of the board, and because the bassline is as fat as it is, I think it was especially important to pay extra attention to the structure of the groove as Siobhan gets into the climax of the song. Chey de Los isn’t sacrificing detail in the name of fleshing out a lot of plasticized pop pleasantries in this single but forming a foundation atop which we can hear what this young woman can really belt out when her heart is completely invested in the material. 

Those who are craving an intimate R&B melody this autumn needn’t look much further than the sweet sounds of Siobhan’s new single “You Can Cry Tonight” for some satisfaction, and judging from the critical approval the song is attracting at the moment, I’m not the only music journalist of this opinion. Though there’s plenty of validity to the minimalist pop movement out of the American underground this year, there’s something equally authentic and enriching about the kind of classical vocal Siobhan is issuing against a kaleidoscopic frame in “You Can Cry Tonight.” She isn’t trying to fit into the current model but instead looking to inspire her own trend with this sound. 

Nicole Killian