Ah, we can almost feel the wind rushing through our freshly pressed curls as we speed across wide landscapes in an open-top car with the sun beating down. That’s just how good Brooklyn-based Carmine Vates’ latest single, “Virginia” is. This song has the power to lift you from your sad little office darkened by the cloudy skies outside and launch you into brightness, openness, sunshine, music, life, joie de vivre!
When Carmine Vates starts singing, it immediately plunges us into the oldie soundscapes of Ben E. King, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Arguably he’s not necessarily doing anything new, but he’s doing what already has been done with such mastery.
His voice is packed with soul and there is a gorgeous and energetic big bang arrangement. We can almost see the faces of the musicians in this recording session – super relaxed, jamming nonchalantly with their bodies and a cheeky twinkle in their eye. We want to be there! It’s sheer feel-good music at it’s very best – excellent songwriting, superb musicianship, majestic vocals…youknow what we’re going to say…
We’re calling it! It’s rare we find a brand-new artist with a brand-new song that excites us so much – Carmine Vates is next on our “Artists Who the Tonemamas Are 100% Convinced Will Become International Sensations And Probably Win a Grammy And When That Grammy Is Won, Please Give Your Tonemamas a Shout-Out Who Were With You From The Beginning” (the list title is a work in progress).
Best listened to while: wherever/ whenever you can moooooove – in a speeding car, running full-speed through the park, jumping up and down on a trampoline, shaking your body in your living room, but get moving Tonemiller!
Listen for this moment: 01:47 that INSANE horn breakdown where Carmine Vates lets loose (it happens again later in the song and we love it so much it hurts our tonehearts).