Temme Scott – The Silent One (single)

Temme Scott – The Silent One

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdsYJjYdz8U

Like many of the best songwriters and musicians, Temme Scott’s love for the art blossomed in her early teens. Her need for self-expression brought her to the Los Angeles area in 2017 and Scott has spent much of her time since then semi self-imposed seclusion as she continues to write song reflective of her interior weather and personal experiences. Her new single “The Silent One” reflects the value of that time alone as it’s a major new addition to the story of pop music in 2018. There’s something special about it from the first in the way it opens with a light drone and Scott’s voice providing near spectral accompaniment. She doesn’t retain that disembodied quality for long.

Her voice is an astonishingly flexible instrument, veering from crystalline highs into a gritty lower range capable of conveying just as much via phrasing. Some singers gifted with superb pipes are oddly capable of manifesting much emotion; every line often ends up sounding the same and we admire their technical virtuosity rather than honoring their breathtaking sincerity. This is not the case with Temme Scott’s “The Silent One”. Instead, she inhabits every word of the song like her life depends on nailing just the right tone for her words. The attention and care in her voice is obvious.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/temmescott/

“The Silent One” has a gentle musical quality matching her voice at its most ethereal, but it isn’t lightweight or ephemeral in anyway. Instead, Scott unwinds “The Silent One” for us with patience far beyond her years replete with sparkling piano phrases and low-key percussion touches. The percussion helps strengthen the shape of the song and tethers it to musical earth. Both singer and arrangement are in perfect sympathy with this track; it is abundantly clear “The Silent One” is the result of much thought and consideration, but Scott presents it with devastating naturalness as a pure heartfelt musical outcry.

It runs a little over four minutes long, but plays shorter. The songwriting structure keeps everything condensed to a fine edge and there’s no extraneous dross weighing down the song; Scott demonstrates a sure hand with building songs that, once again, is far beyond the reach of most songwriters her age. Talent will out. Talented musicians, with discipline and practice, can be made, but natural artists like Temme Scott would still be writing songs for her own personal satisfaction even if she wasn’t recording them.

I’m sure of that. Music flows as freely free her as speech does from any of us and it, undoubtedly, emanates from the deepest regions of her heart. “The Silent One” will draw a lot of well deserved notice for Scott and open up a new chapter in her musical journey. Confidence she will continue to write and grow as both a songwriter and performer is well justified by this new single and it’s likely true we’ve just begin to scratch the surface of her talents. We’ll undoubtedly be hearing more from this promising artist in the future.  

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/3wJPINxGJc8tzqApLZWAf5

Mindy McCall