I’m excited to be premiering Melbourne artist Marshall Stannus' new single Twenty-One. It’s a great reminder that 2020’s been tough, but things will get better. You’ll hear Lil Peep’s influence on the track (RIP PEEP), and his voice marks him as someone to watch.

Hip-hop and R&B have always shared a close relationship, but in the past few years they’ve become enmeshed to a point where both genres are always borrowing from each other. This song is no different - you could easily make the argument that Marshall is rapping on Twenty-One, just as you could argue this is a rock song. After all, the guitar might just be the most captivating part of the song (apart from Marshall’s vocals).

Speaking about the track, Marshall says, “Twenty-One marks my latest single and my most personal and polished one to date, it explores themes of love and loss and specifically focuses on the emotions that come with growing up and getting older.” Marshall isn’t quite sure what the coming days, weeks, months and years have in store for him. However, rather than being scared, he’s ready to tackle things head-on.

One of my strongest-held musical beliefs is that genres are completely meaningless, and I love when a song shows that. There are quite a few elements to Twenty-One that work together better than they would alone. The song is like a familiar hug from a friend. - comforting, but never loses its sense of charm. You might have heard elements of Twenty-One on other tracks, but much like a mad scientist, Marshall has gotten in the lab and put together a song that draws from multiple genres and time periods. Unlike Frankenstein’s monster, this song is aurally beautiful.

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Check out Twenty-One above. As I’ve written about before, the SoundCloud era never died. It just stopped being artifically promoted by the people making decisions about what music should sound like, and the SoundCloud community was left to continue to evolve organically. I really enjoy Marshall’s sound. I think Twenty-One is a great reminder that however we choose to spend our days, tomorrow is a new one. It might just be the motivation you need to make a change.