Rich but made valuable through more than its melodic charms alone, DawgGoneDavis’s singing is reason enough for you to check out the new single “Love Wins” this summer, but if you think it’s the only noteworthy element comprising the third official release from this Kansan pop satirist, you’re in for quite the surprise. Building atop the angularities of previous headline-grabbing singles like “Butt on Fiya” and the more recent “Again, No More,” DGD reestablishes herself as a vocalist and steward of good humor more than she is a pop virtuoso in this performance. If you came into the song with as high a set of expectations as I did you will be very pleased by what her hard work has produced in “Love Wins.”
From a lyrical perspective, there’s nothing all that over the top or life-changing about this single, but I don’t believe its release was about raising the bar in this player’s poetic department. There’s a grandiosity to the texture, tone, and very stylization of this mix that suggests much artsier ambitions, and I don’t think I’ll be the only music critic who notices as much this season. DGD featured stronger attention to detail in “Again, No More;” here, she’s ready to relax, let her hair down, and allow for the brilliant gifts she’s been given to do most of the communicating for her – sans any external interruptions from the backing band. Anyone can take a good riff or a sexy beat and match it with a fair rhyme, but what’s transpiring in this track requires so much more dedication.
The raw physicality of “Love Wins” is honestly the biggest point of interest outside of DGD’s vocal, and I love how well it helps to define the narrative in her lyrics without reshaping the emotion in her voice. The harmonies are what lend intimacy to the general vibe in this song, and had they not been given as careful a treatment behind the board as they were here, I don’t think that we’d be feeling the full scope of passion we were always meant to in this single. There are a lot of critics who would say pop music is becoming increasingly overthought by Zoomers slowly starting to occupy its central spotlight, but for my interests, this is exactly where the genre needs to be going right now.
Unafraid to be bold and colorful with every part of her music, DawgGoneDavis is setting a good example for her contemporaries and even some of the older players to have entered the industry before her in “Love Wins.” If this song were to become the cornerstone of a full-length studio album I think it would likely jump-start a lot of interest in its creator and the multidimensionality of her artistry overall. I’m bewitched by her talents, and even though there’s still more we need to learn about her, she’s proven rather transparent and willing to embrace the listeners in this latest cherry of a single. For what I expect from her, this classic act is still hitting all the right notes.
Garth Thomas