The Devil You Know- X Ambassadors Review


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Recently, X Ambassadors released a new track. It included many departures from their recent style, but in many ways limits itself and falls on its face. It's a bit heavier than their more recent tracks, and takes full advantage of X Ambassador's front man Sam Harris's deep voice, as compared to some of the other clearly autotuned crescendos in Torches. I also think that the guitar also sounds very good compared to some of their other songs which are piano based songs, which can never match up to Chris Martin's crooners.
On the other hand, the song has a few major drawbacks. It doesn't have very complex lyrics, resorting to ooooh-oh-oh-ohs that don't deserve to be their own choruses, only as interjections such as on Believer by Imagine Dragons. In addition, it pairs peculiar humming and other synths with guitar, which doesn't match up. The guitars also sound a bit looped and possibly electronic, like their earlier hit "Jungle".
All in all, this track is a great forecast for the potential of the new (unannounced) X Ambassadors album, but this style still needs to be more refined to better the success of their previous album, and to make up for mediocre tracks like Torches which they will no doubt share the album with.

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