The latest single from Ian McFarland represents a departure from his usual sound, citing a musical rebrand as leading to a repositioning from ‘punk and edge’ towards pop and dance-ability.
The resulting sound, at the fore on Hearts Fall In Line, is warm and textural. The song opens with arch, fuzzy guitars as McFarland produces a slightly whimsical vocal. The result has just a dash of the nostalgic feeling of something like Smashing Pumpkins’ 1979. Having gradually opened up, the short chorus at the thirty-second mark transitions the song into a kaleidoscopic instrumental bridge, drums and instrumentation giving the song a freewheeling, dream-like quality.
McFarland’s exploration of music began whilst studying abroad in Spain, where he started writing music and performing music under his own name, leading to him taking a minor in music production at Berklee College of Music. After moving to New York, Ian’s career began to take shape, with him performing in numerous live venues and, ultimately, assembling his current trio of musicians.
Opening with the line, ‘Picking up the pieces of our time’, Hearts Fall In Line was written on the USA’s election night back in November. It represents McFarland’s attempt to make sense of what he was seeing, manifesting in the chorus’ line, ‘Hearts fall in line for you, hearts fall out of time for me’.
The song has a playful feel to it, almost ferris wheel like, conveying the ups, downs, and circular nature of politics, society, and history. At the same time, there is an underlying sadness to McFarland’s performance, and you can sense him attempting to retreat into the innocence of youth, particularly on the line ‘Putting back together fragments of my youth’.
Ian McFarland has created a compelling musical collage on Hearts Fall In Line, whilst conveying the weird alienation many of us feel in this specific moment.