Directly from Wiltshire, England, Reuben Medlin is blending genres and creating his own sounds, keeping a confessional tone and delivering rich groovy guitars. In 2021, Reuben released his debut ground-breaking album, Safe. The album starts with a heavy, dark, and dense vibe, both the intro that names the album and “Your Time” has a fast-paced rough beat and misty vocals with the latter developing into a blissful ending. The follow-up song, “Wine Stains”, begins with a strong beat, a wobbly intense bass, and carries an honest tone. It incorporates an interesting detail with a fast question-answer break that then introduces the catchy chorus. 

In a more uplifting tone, “Falling in Love” takes us on a hope restoring trip with a gradual introduction fading in, a cool bass break, and polished backing vocals. “All That You Love” captivates you from the beginning, with a steady guitar an impactful beat and packed with effects and little details. Reuben presents us with a higher more sung register, there are also distant layered vocals and melismatic inflections at the end of phrases. Overall, a finely-calibrated track where the melodies move between different auditory levels. Transporting us to a more dreamy atmosphere, “Never Know” is full of attention grabbing effects, from the twinkle of the synth that reminisces to fairy dust to the solid bass. Reuben displays a more distinct timbre with a little rap break but keeping a similar vibe as the previous songs resulting in a cohesive album. “Safe” ends with an outro, “Silence”, it delivers an idea of expansion leaving a taste of goodbye but more of a see you soon, and we did!

In 2022, Reuben gifted us with the introspective single, “Down the Slide”. The song comes in a crescendo with a wobbly guitar and fast steady beat, the vocals are raw, with layered backing vocals that create beautiful harmonies. The track presents more distinct sections and if you listen closely you will hear an interesting low raspy voice and the presence of choral second voices, ending with a high synthesized melody. Reuben Medlin is a young singer, songwriter, and producer with so much talent, he combines bold sounds with lush harmonies and poignant lyrics.  I am eager to see what he will put together next, surely a lot of strum bursts of guitars and piercing melodies.