Auckland’s Sam Bartell, who plays under the name Sam Bartells, is a contemporary singer-songwriter with a country streak as wide as the Mississippi. He’s working towards an Australisian tour next year and is dropping new tunes like leaves drop in Autumn.
Mistaken is out this week and builds to a huge chorus. Sure, he’s got a country twang, but in this tune his vocal performance has borrowed a bit from Robbie Williams, especially as it enters the second chorus. Then there’s the tension building middle 8, and climaxing coda. Bartells really knows how to compose a pop song.
Mistaken is slickly produced and should be readily adopted by the few people who govern commercial radio playlists. Beginning with a piano melody which could be out of a Nick Cave song, a syncopated guitar part joins a couple of bars later, followed by bass and gentle drums, then Bartells begins singing at the lower end of his register.
In the old days of the 7” single there was an ‘a’ side, and a ‘b’ side, giving the listener a couple of songs at least, but those days are pretty much gone, with artists and their people releasing a single, one song, just one.
Bartells is fortunate he’s released such a good one.