Certain fully orchestrated instrument-backed solo projects always have a recognisable sound; usually focused, simple and catchy. Mr. Face is a fairly new entrant into the scene that started releasing music under this name this year. It’s the brainchild of Karan Aurora, who has written enough material for a full-length self-titled album, and the sound is fairly rock-driven. It’s also a lot of fun to listen to, and his latest single ‘Waiting In Line’ bodes really well for the future of this project.
The song itself is fairly short, clocking in at just over three minutes. There’s not too much that hits you in the face, but all the elements of a great song are in attendance. The production on the track is punchy and clear; it’s something that helps the various elements of the track, especially Jordan Johnson’s killer vocals (Jordan has featured on all the tracks for the upcoming albums, handling vocal duties) and the layered guitars that sit on top of each other in the chorus.

There’s actually not too much intricate playing going on, and that helps the different melodies stand out a bit more. The song doesn’t take off into the stratosphere at any point over its short runtime, choosing instead to lean on its catchy feel-good vibe for impact. There’s also no nonsense to distract you from the meat of the track structurally. The verses go into the choruses without much preamble or buildup and that maintains a sort of ceiling of the energy the track has. The vocal lines are catchy as all hell, the guitars do a modulated thing during the song’s short bridge that provides a nice change of sound, and the layered, hard panned guitar lines that provide the melodic backbone for the chorus are instantly memorable. The song does a little nod towards arena rock during the bridge that lifts it just momentarily before it brings the chorus back. There’s no outro or anything extra, but it seems like Karan wants to present his idea as simply as possible.

Solo projects are always in danger of overindulgence just by virtue of how they work. Being one person with all the creative control can easily result in music that sounds a bit loose and haphazard. Karan has kept everything tight and reined in on ‘Waiting In Line’, and that results in a clean and neat listening experience, even though it is a little short on inventiveness and innovation. But it’s much better to err on the side of less exploration than too much. Mr. Face has a lot of room to grow as a project, and this single shows that it has potential.