Laklan makes a triumphant return with a new single that is a more personalized and ballad-esque approach to a previous release called "I Would". It definitely feels incredibly honest as he lays out detailed lyrics for you to soak in, which, for many, can end up being quite relatable.
The original version of this track was released last year on a short EP and still bears the same honesty but has a lot of different electronic and layered approaches that make the song expansive and engaging but has a tendency to let you pay more attention to that rather than the lyrics.
The new version is stripped down to just vocals and piano which feels cinematic and emotionally driven. You can pay much more attention to the lyrics this time around, which really showcases a lot of his personality.
This was a beautifully woven version of the song because the piano work is excellent, although subtle. Nothing about this is over the top, but the song does have the same growth of intensity as the original. At the end of the song, everything is much more intense and thriving.
His vocal performance here is key because he keeps things very calm during the verses, and as the song unfolds and gets more intense, he also brings his vocal level up in intensity so that the energy level of everything rises.
This is a track that plays out as a certain chapter or moment in the artist's life, and I think it takes guts to lay it out there the way he does.
It was most certainly cathartic, or it feels like it must have been for him to write and release because he's telling a lot, and of course, this has to do with lust, allure, and regret.
Laklan does such an outstanding job of capturing the emotions of all of that on record.
As an excellent producer, Laklan knows exactly how to create emotion on a song and not only has he proven his abilities in terms of making songs sound lush, thick, full-bodied, and vast, now he has shown us that he can also make a song feel stripped down and personal on a different level.
This approach isn't super easy. If you're expressing a lot of inner thought and emotion on record and it's stripped down, you know that people are going to be paying a lot of attention to the lyrics, and he was very open with that, which is why I say it takes guts to write a song like this.
The mix is excellent as well, and the effect that he uses on the vocals keeps them slightly distanced at times, but at others, much more up close and in your face.
He utilized certain kinds of effects to make those vocals feel spacious and expansive during the verses. When the last part of the song comes in and all that intensity builds up to a climactic point, the vocals feel much more up close.
So, you can tell he paid a lot of attention to the details when he was creating this, and it must have felt pretty good to recreate a song in a completely different way because, although the track has the same lyrics and even arrangement to an extent, the mood is different.
This was brilliantly thought out and performed with some passion, so you can tell it was authentically driven.
I'm not surprised by any of this as, again, we're pretty familiar with Laklan and his work, but this was something special.
He definitely put it all out there on the table for everyone to see and hear and that's why the song is connective.
This song was released today, so check it out and then check out the original version which is also on his Spotify and comes with a part two of the track as well.
There's also a pretty extensive catalog that you can check out, which shows his diversity of songwriting and artistry.
But again, start with this new and very personal, one-on-one style single so you can really soak in how intense this gets.
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