โLoose Change (Gone Electric)โ finds independent artist 50mething doing what he does best, staring straight at the state of the world, wincing a little, and then turning it into something darkly catchy. Known for writing from real-life wounds and injustices, cancer, knife crime, MLK, intimate image abuse, he now zooms in on something more everyday but no less unsettling, about how a simple walk down the street has started to feel like a risk assessment.
The track was first sketched out years ago as a warning to leave your valuables at home and only carry โa bit of cash,โ but it really clicks into place with the rise of e-bikes and e-scooters turning pavements into racetracks and providing easy getaways for phone thieves. Thatโs where the songโs wry sting comes in. Itโs serious, but itโs also laughing at the absurdity of needing tactics just to go outside.
Sonically, โLoose Change (Gone Electric)โ keeps things tight and earthy. A tapping, organic beat rumbles and tumbles underneath, rolling forward with a restless shuffle while the music broods in the background before subtly shifting its melody. Light, jittery percussion shakes around the edges, like loose screws in a machine thatโs been running too long. Over that, 50mething sings in an understated, lightly trailing voice, almost conversational as he drops the quietly devastating line: โloose change in my pocket is all I got.โ It lands like both practical advice and a shrugging indictment of how unsafe the streets have become.
You can hear echoes of his heroes Prince and Stevie Wonder in the blend of groove, observation, and sly humor, but the perspective is very much his own: a fifty-something revisiting home recording with compact digital gear and using it to log social decay in real time. โLoose Change (Gone Electric)โ isnโt a protest chantโitโs more like a weary, witty safety briefing you find yourself humming on the way out the door.
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Review by: Naomi Joan