Review by Vince Leigh
This release by the Phil Edwards Band is the second single to be dropped from their forthcoming sophomore album due out later in the year.
At the tail end of 2018, they put out an interesting first single Cabin In The Woods; an alt-country record that not surprisingly had a lot of love at radio.
The breezy, mellow sound continues with As It Goes, though this latest has an element of pop throughout it with its recurring hook lyric in the chorus and the summery jauntiness of the song’s rhythmic foundation. If Jack Johnson is beachside adult, the Phil Edwards Band is a bit of that with an added pastoral tinge.
But one can imagine hearing As It Goes while cruising the coast; the easy-going nature of the vocal, the laidback nuances in the band’s performance. There’s nothing obtrusive about this style, and on this particular track, the lyric’s underlying weightiness is made more palatable by the almost gentle application of Phil’s expertise.
The calmness in his voice is analogous to the subject matter: the obvious message being the attitude of taking life as it comes, or as Phil sings, as it goes. So it’s a harmonious and unruffled approach to communicating a harmonious and unruffled way of life.
As a result, it feels legitimate, and not only for the convincing cadences in Phil’s voice but for all these elements fastened to the same uniting effort. And the band upholds the moderate and artfully simplistic stance.
The acoustic guitar that begins and underpins the instrumentation is the restrained rhythmic force of the song, with the added colour of the solo, the end chants and the last bridge section—a more frenetic vocal part—all coming together to create a track that will no doubt find a home on commercial radio. Or on a TV ad.
Picture that coastal road, a beachside dwelling. We cut to a circle of friends lounging around, smiling and drinking; kids, animals, food, beyond which is a descending tangerine sun. These are the visuals, and this is that song.
