Relentlessly passionate and fiery in her melodic command, Domini Monroe refuses to hold back as she lays into the chorus of her new single “Love Me More,” her vocal slicing through the instrumental fabric like a pair of shears through silk. There’s a lot for her to compete with in this latest single – the beats, the striking synthetic melodies, even the very nature of the groove itself – but there’s scarcely a moment in “Love Me More” where she isn’t both the most fetching and the most intriguing element for us to behold. She’s made some big waves in the last six years, but in this latest release, Domini Monroe sounds like the pro we always knew she could be.

The pulsating beat, heavily textured (arguably as much so as any of the other components in the track are), is the very soul of the mood in this song, but I wouldn’t say that it steals any of the adrenaline away from the bassline – nor the obvious focal point, Domini Monroe herself. Monroe straddles the rhythm of the drums like a trained expert; the surgical precision of this master mix aside, she’s executing on-point wonderfully here, and flexing some serious muscle that her peers ought to be jealous of.

I’ve been hearing lots of sharp indie tracks this season, but this production quality really is out of this world-clear. The fine-tuned reverberations on the keys make a glistening effect against the backdrop of the fuzzy, black and white bassline, and even when the ebb and flow of the percussion is smothering the vocal with as much tone and intensity as possible, there’s never a point where any of the individual parts get muddied up in the mix. This is solid craftsmanship, and it’s probably the slickest work Monroe has to her credit.

It would be nice to hear more bass-powered tracks like this one in the future from Domini Monroe, and I think that her versatile approach to “Love Me More” is proof that she can tackle just about any groove and come out on top. This is admittedly a little familiar in the lyrical department, at least when compared with “Pump My Heart” and “Exposed,” but I’m not sure that the goal here was to demonstrate any of this artist’s skills as a poet. This is all about big beats and bold vocal harmonies, and on those two fronts, it outshines a lot of mainstream hits by a mile.

INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/dominimonroe?igshid=5yrqokmc8grz

If you weren’t already listening to Domini Monroe’s music before now, there’s a likely chance that you’re going to dig what she’s doing in “Love Me More,” and moreover, the current direction that she appears to be taking her sound. She’s come a long way in the last six years, and with the new momentum forming behind her music in 2020, I think we’re going to hear her best material in the next couple of years. I’ll be looking forward to more of her output, and I doubt I’m the only one.

Garth Thomas