With the release of his full-length debut, 2019’s Counterglow, Montreal-based singer/songwriter and pop artist Reno McCarthy quickly received attention for his self-assured songwriting. Live, McCarthy has a debonair quality and he and his backing band has been praised for their groove-heavy live sets.
Following the loss of his father last year, McCarthy wound up writing and recording a moving and deeply personal EP, Angels Watching Us Dance. The EP found McCarthy crafting stripped-down and strikingly sensitive material. Continuing upon a similar vein as Angels Watching Us Dance, McCarthy’s latest single, the standalone track “Sundown” is an introspective yet upbeat pop song centered around an expansive song structure featuring twinkling synths, glistening guitars, McCarthy’s plaintive vocals and a soaring hook and a brooding bridge, revealing an artist with an unerring ability to craft songs drawing from lived-in, personal experience: in the case of “Sundown,” the song’s lyrics touch on infatuation and obsession that should feel familiar to those who have been — or felt — unrequited love/lust/desire.
