BMA single review by Vince Leigh
Wildfire is the second single release for Canberra band The Wildfires, featuring Weasey Wade, CC Hall, Robert Campton, Niall Howe, Craig Marshalsey and Finlay Marshalsey. The new one is a thoughtful follow-up to the band’s debut, Lovin’ Arms, maintaining the same stylistic approach yet giving us a more robust version.
The track kicks off with an all-in riff, with the band making the most of the accents and creating a unifying intro for the rollicking groove surfaces, merging a southern rock rhythm coloured by country blues inflexions, mainly via the opening bass and guitar parts.
But it’s the lead vocal that immediately pulls us in and becomes our focal point. This is achieved in a few ways. Firstly, it sits just above the band in the mix and is aided by a well-attenuated production.
Yet it’s also the performance; self-assured and inviting, revealing a natural intimacy while delivering a restrained kind of power in the process. The arrangement takes us from the opening riff to a stripped-back verse, pre-chorus, and a full-blown chorus. This is intercut by a guitar solo segue and a repeat of this pattern until a bridge section, which features a modified mood, allowing the end chorus stream to achieve maximum impact.
Wildfire manages to mix traditional and classic genre elements yet also contains an even more persuasive component—the chorus hook. Indeed, when this appears, we are taken on quite the contemporary country-pop road, with the long notes and solidifying background vocals helping to expand the melody and lyric.
Following the bridge section, the hook is utilized to its fullest, with a stop chorus and more intensive playing, all contributing to a general vamping up of proceedings.
A pertinent lyric line is reinforced, ‘When love is so wrong that it’s right’, confirming our understanding of the narrative, with the final phrase ending on ‘wrong’ whereby we are left high and dry but thoroughly convinced by The Wildfires’ latest slice of classic, retro country rock.
Listen to this track on Spotify and Apple Music.
