Album artwork by Tom Keelan
Party planner and prolific podcaster, Curtis Everett Pawley is adding another feather to his already impressively plumed hat as the beating heart behind rapidly rising pop-rock project, The Life. No stranger to the spotlight and affectionately known as the Prince of NYC Nightlife, Pawley’s transition to pop stardom has been relatively seamless, generating a storm of buzzy anticipation and securing opening spots for genre titans Beach Fossils and The 1975.
While some may be turned off by the project’s privileged provenance, setting aside preconceptions reveals that The Life’s debut single, “Grace” is indeed worthy of the attention. Impressive in scale, “Grace” is wholeheartedly a modern pop anthem, one that inspires an euphoric emotional response grand enough for neon lit festival stages and easily scalable all the way down to spontaneous carpool karaoke sessions from the backseat of an Uber. Driving beats, textural guitar, and a tightly wound bassline intermingle within the densely layered mix, leaving just enough room for Pawley’s breathy, earnest vocals to punch through as the common thread across the track’s three movements.
Starting relatively small, “Grace” opens like a 00s midwestern emo song remixed for the modern age and propelled by jangly guitar lines that establish the baseline foundation for the remainder of the track. An abrupt electronic flourish with an amplified bass riff signal the beginning of the second act, essentially building upon everything that came before with even denser production before dialing back ever so slightly for an intimate vocal segment carried aloft by swelling strings. The final movement begins with a headlong crash as “Grace” explodes into a full-on club rattler packed to the bursting with glitchy electronics and bass-forward production recalling the mid-career compositions of EDM innovator Brian Transeau.
What sets “Grace” apart from the myriad of radio-ready pop tracks clamoring for a corner of the cultural mindshare is Pawley’s penchant for disruption borne from his time as time as one half of the formerly anonymous underground duo The Ion Pack. Notable for their witty scrutiny of celebrity culture and merciless trolling on social media, The Ion Pack leveraged their insider perspective as a Trojan Horse for blowing up institutional ironies and calling out celebrity antics. In this way, The Life is not much different. Dressing himself in the well-studied trappings of mainstream pop and access to high-profile spaces, Pawley is able to easily insert himself into the conversation before completely flipping the genre on its head with compositional embellishments that lend a unique tang to “Grace”‘s widely palatable production.
Keep an eye on The Life. They’ll be festival headliners before you know it.
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