On “Love,” The Something Specials Offer Up a Low-Key Exit Strategy for Contemporary Romantics

The new project from St. Augustine-native Taylor Olin (of Dust Fuss fame) betrays Olin’s expatriation to her current climes of Los Angeles.

“Love,” by Olin’s new band The Something Specials, evokes the aftermath and clearing haze of SoCal rock deities Fleetwood Mac, after surviving their late ‘70s radio-hit pantheism. Over an unhurried strumming chord progression, mottled with a tasty plaintive riff courtesy of Nathan Sloan, Olin and Josh Austin share the narrative about getting “by on love.” More of an ode to being conquered and humbled by love than a testament to any relationship praise or woes, the Something Specials sound as if they are fueled by restraint, almost-imperceptibly increasing the song’s drive on the chorus, forgoing any DAW/digital gimmickry and keeping the production framed with subdued guitars, bass and drums and gradients of electric piano, keeping the performance on cruise control with the windows rolled down.

The band are bicoastal: Olin in L.A. and Austin in Sloan in NYC. Whether or not they intend to be a touring entity or a studio-bound egregore that will continue to expand by reinterpreting halcyon FM/AM pleasures is irrelevant to the innate catchiness and casual innocence contained in “Love.” Grim days call for creative antidotes, and if we’re lucky, non-lethal escapism. On the level of earnestness, sincerity, and an impressive disregard for facile bling, hashtags and ampersands, the Something Specials and “Love” offer up a low-key exit strategy for contemporary romantics.

Stream The Something Specials “Love” here.