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Image via Jordan Max
Apathy and irony arise as easy defense mechanisms for many in a world that seems too fucked for salvation, so far gone that its seemingly inevitable downward spiral shuns the efficacy of human efforts great and small.
At the heart of 23-year-old British singer Jordan Max’s debut single “Hell,” a simple set of questions:
“What ya gon’ do?/
Watch the world fall down?”
In writing, they should be affecting enough; filtered through Max’s pained, rough-hewn voice, they take on the weight of a preacher’s prescription to his flock, wrought with the weight of experience and the threat of fiery damnation. “Hell” takes root in classic Christian imagery, but never feels dogmatic, a song that can be read as a sort of secular hymn calling for deliverance from indifference as a first step towards fighting for a better world.
Recorded in Max’s bedroom, “Hell” serves as an impressive appetizer for the singer’s upcoming EP, Only One Is King, out on 3/25 via Full + Bless.
