SINGLE REVIEW: DYLAN TAYLOR - PLAYIN' TO LOSE

Quite why Dylan Taylor is pictured on the sleeve of her new single "Playin' To Lose", holding a child's tricycle is anyone's guess. Following on from her excellent last single "Danger", comes a totally different sound yet accompanied by a similar urge to fill it with her lyrics, lots of them!

There's a prominent electric guitar sound at the start, and a band driving an urgent sound before Dylan joins in with a torrent of lyrics, and who could not be reeled by an opening couple of verses like

"People come and go like teenage acne

And money stays gone like a deadbeat Daddy

But your drama hangs around like a gnat

That just won't die

The news sounds like a sci fi movie

My diet's a disgrace to the natural foodies

But my Doctor says my body

Is in the best shape of it's life"

Dylan is a walking enigma, just from the some of the shady snippets she shared on stage regarding Moonshine distribution, she has most definitely lived a life, and yet it is hard not to be charmed by her sheer exuberance and enthusiasm. Those opening verses seem to capture that perfectly and the next section captures her unpredictability.

"Oh take a photo document this version of me

Cause who knows tomorrow which one I’m gonna be

I'm an onion a rose space between your toes

Different every day trying to go with the flow oh"

It all leads to the chorus

"Worlds on fire turning like a lollipop dreidel

Wild horses burning down what’s left of the stable

You can run you can hide scoop out your own eyes

But when the light shines through don’t matter what you choose

You’re just another asshole playing to lose"

Top and quite possibly first ever use of the world "dreidel" in a popular song which according to Google is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

The next verse is filled with images of personal and global destruction, all delivered over a frankly relentlessly upbeat tune, which makes it all the more alarming.

"Lovers feel more like playing cards

Rolling dice round my jaded heart

While I spiral round the idea of going all in on goodbye

Friends call me friend but they hate me healthy

The sun shines pretty but the planets melting

While we kill our eyes with telephones

Trying not to miss a damn thing"

For most of the song from the first chorus onwards, Dylan's voice is either echoed by an uncredited male voice, or it provides an array backing vocal effects.

The bridge provides one final bit of Dylan wisdom

“You can spend your life sad about what you consider flaws

Or you can use what you got to raise some hell before you’re gone”

Let's hope Dylan Taylor has a lot more hell raising to do as this current runs of singles is fabulous.

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