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Album Review

Dianña is Back with New Christmas Single

With the graceful demeanor of a classic country crooner, Dianña draws us into her inescapable melodic web in the new single “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe,” an ode to the holiday season and a tribute to the sumptuous sounds of winter. “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe” has the feel of something straight out of the classic American songbook, and yet its foundations aren’t marred in a lot of familiar themes we’ve heard a hundred times before.

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Undaunted by the notion of having to live up to all of those other recording artists who took a crack at this genre every December, Dianña decadently adds a country nuance to this composition’s boxy beat and makes it feel not only like a taste of the holidays akin to eggnog but also like a glimpse into her artistic palate as we’ve never heard it before. She doesn’t hold anything back from us in this new single, and if you love Christmas as much as I do you can consider this track required listening all month long.

Dianña is so patient in the execution of her verses that her musical profile has much more in common with the vocal standards singers of the early 20th century than it does with many of her peers. She’s decidedly more restrained than anyone in contemporary pop, yet she has this intrepid nature as a performer that makes her ambitious goals seem a little easier to reach.

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“Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe” demands a certain amount of nimbleness from the singer of its tender words, but rather than trying to cross the finer points of the song with a lot of vibrato-filled showing off, she glides through the prose without ever attacking its more difficult twists and turns. For someone with the skillset that Dianña has there’s no need to embellish the melody with unneeded bells and whistles. She’s letting the groove of this piece do all the work for her and merely adding her vocal stylings as a finishing touch.

There’s so much color and rich texture to this recording that I could spend hours trying to analyze its deeper intricacies. Dianña is very good at sewing more minute details together in the fabric of her songs, and though she could have gone with something more streamlined, she put just as much effort into making these ridges feel larger than life.

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We’re nudged closer to the flame in her heart with the utterance of each syllable, and instead of feeling like we’re hearing a tired old Christmas song that’s been played at one too many parties, it’s like we’re experiencing the same joy that children feel when they come dashing towards the tree on Christmas morning.

If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend securing a copy of “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe” this December; Dianña offers us one of the best songs of the holiday season without wrapping it in all the commercial ribbons we’re used to. For what I look for in this genre, she’s hit the spot and then some.

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Babette Cook

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Album Review

Saint Escape sets the past on fire with latest release “Look At What You Made”

Saint Escape

Saint Escape isn’t here to reconcile the past, they’re here to torch it. Now, with the release of their new single “Look At What You Made,” Saint Escape have unleashed a punishing, nu-metal-infused anthem that just sounds like an equal measure of reckoning and release. It is loud, confrontational, and honest, exactly what a purging rock record should be.

Produced and mixed by Joe Rickard, Starset, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, the track delivers a tight punch that fuses wild aggression and arena-sized power. “Look At What You Made” doesn’t stop. Rickard’s slick production redoubles Saint Escape’s raw edge rather than sanding it down, and the song takes on a huge, modern rock sound without losing its bite.

“Look At What You Made” is a primal response to toxic authority figures, the kind who kept order through fear, misinformation, and control, and knew where best to leave emotional scars. On “Look At What You Made,” the anger boiling beneath the surface becomes something purposeful, an anthem for anyone who’s been moulded by manipulation and left in its wake. The effect is communal shake-off, a determination not to be shaped by the past.

And lead vocalist Matt Cox provides a threatening, buffed clean vocal performance, of sorts as well, one that’s heavy with anger and determination. There is rage here, but also clarity, a sense that this is less about revenge than about reclaiming autonomy. As Cox puts it, the song is a purge, a reminder that the future belongs to those willing to to take it back. “Look At What You Made” is a testament to strength and newfound independence, it’s further evidence that Saint Escape are bleeding their past into something louder, stranger, and harder to ignore.

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Album Review

Big O redefines artistic evolution with “When it’s Not Said, But Done” album

Big O

Big O’s “When it’s Not Said, But Done” is a whisper of transformation narrated through rhythm, texture, and space. Across its fifteen tracks, spanning just under forty-seven minutes, Big O sacrifices flash for feeling and ego for essence.

The production feels like an artist who has finally quit chasing something external and is instead listening inward. The flow of the album is methodical but organic, with each track leading into the other as if they were diary entries. On “Free Spirit,” Big O creates a soundscape that embodies freedom in action, with rhythms that propel you forward. It’s one of those rare songs that can be at once contemplative and propulsive, with a slow revelation. And also, “New Found Joy” is an anthem for rebirth.

Big O’s production vision here is sweeping and cinematic, but also intimate. The presence of live musicians gives an organic texture. Jeronimo G’s xylophone on track nine tolls like an intimate conversation, while IB Delight’s saxophone on track ten blows satisfying warmth and longing into the mix. These collaborative moments are the crucial parts of Big O’s unfolding language.

Every choice, from the minimal artwork by Andriyan Robby to the in-house mixing and mastering by Big O himself, is consistent with the album’s spirit of transformational thought. In “When it’s Not Said, But Done,” Big O has created a statement on silent courage. It is an album for those who know that, in reality, real change does not need to be shouted from the mountaintops, but only heard, felt, and lived.

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