This review covers the drum n bass track The Qemists – Run You.
This track was released in 2016 on the album Warrior Sound. We previously reviewed the track Warrior Sound. That track got a great review.
The track starts off with guitar feedback. After that, filtered vocals do take over. After a moment of filtered vocals, the normal vocals come in. This is backed by several synths. After some vocoded vocals and some additional vocals, the track launches into a non-lyrical section.
The non-lyrical section contains numerous synths that could be misheard as an electric rock section. After this, the track then hits the main chorus. This section is capped off with a synth section before pulling back.
After this, the vocals take over and build the track back up along with some synths. When the vocals end, some synths take over for a brief period of time. At this point, the track sounds like it is going into another main chorus section, but the track changes gears and goes into a mix of vocals and synth.
There is an additional synth section before the vocals take back over in another verse and main chorus.
The track then starts winding down with more synths, some kicks, and one last burst of vocals.
For me, this is one of those tracks that I was initially skeptical about. The main title is one of the things that made me look at this track sideways a bit. In fact, even with my first listen through, I found myself not quite feeling this track. A large part of this is just the initially odd phrasing of the title being a prominent part of the track.
Of course, as I listened to this track more and more, the more I found myself appreciating the track. The raw emotion found in the lyrics and vocals actually do win me over in the end. The emotion in the track I get is just the overall feeling of being viciously under attack and not taking it. It ends up being a great track to vent out to.
What I do like about this track a lot is the fact that there really isn’t anything significant in the way of electric guitars. Yes, there is small pockets of it, but a lot of the sounds are actually growling synths that sound similar to guitars. Still, with the powerful vocals found in this track, you could almost mistaken it for a rock track. At its core, this is definitely a drum n bass track. In this case, this track can show how much drum n bass can rock.
My only nitpicks in this track is that some of the vocals do get a little garbled and a few lyrics get somewhat lost. There is also a cliche lyric found in this track. Still, these are small given just how great the overall track is.
Generally speaking, this is one of those tracks that can be mistaken for rock, but at its core, it is a drum n bass track. The vocals are great and are definitely capable of belting out some well realized raw emotion. There are small issues with pronunciation and cliche, but these issues occupy such a small amount of the track, it’s a minor critique in the end. Still, a great track all around and well worth listening to.
Score
8/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
