Kochi singer-songwriter Doctor Lincoln has been serving up rock music for longer than a decade now, so his very sweet new single ‘Don’t Let Go’ doesn’t surprise anyone with its quality. There is something very 2000s about the song; something that reminds the listener of a time gone by. A time where popular music was somehow not particularly political or ‘complex’ in the common connotation of the word. This was when the only end goal of a mass-appeal song was to make you feel nice, sad or heartbroken. While the jury is out on whether that was a simpler time, this track focuses on the basics and gets them right.

This is a proper pop-rock ballad, complete with little solos, a refrain that you can’t not sing and uplifting lyrics (though the actual subject matter hints at something a bit darker, maybe). The fun is to be had in two things: the production and some of the sonic touches he uses. The guitar tones are excellent. The chords that round out the song will take you back to the Vh1 era in no time flat. There is also a commendable effort to use a variety of elements to end up in the same place; some synths jump into the place a very cheesy guitar would normally occupy. Where a guitar needs to be at its most accessible, it delivers. The song’s bridge layers a lot more sounds than one would expect. Of course, what ‘Don’t Let Go’ is going for is something that feels both familiar and a long time go. If that doesn’t make you put it on when you’re reflecting on some sort of long-gone memory, nothing will.