Rachel Colman
Touring Musician John Marlin From Waxahachie Is On The Verge Of A Solo Breakthrough With This Feel-Good Tune About Love.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
John Marlin — “How I Feel”
RIYL: You’re a shy hopeless romantic who needs encouragement to finally call their crush.
What else you should know: John Marlin toured with renowned country music artist Granger Smith and his solo track shows his versatility within the country, indie and pop music genres.
Marlin is a wildly devoted independent solo artist from Waxahachie who gained recognition while touring as a guitarist and songwriter alongside Granger Smith for the past 6 years. After his long endeavor, Marlin is now ready to pursue his personal artistry full-time with “How I Feel” as the first song of many to come in 2022.
Similar to how lovey-dovey films like How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days leave the viewer, “How I Feel” accomplishes the same phenomena of wanting to make the listener shout their love from rooftops, no matter how cringe-worthy it may be. With cover art that states “The wait is over, call us today and tell that special someone how YOU feel! 555-FEELS,” this urgency of encouragement is undeniable.
Motivational, candid and spontaneity are all words that come to mind when listening to Marlin’s new song. The lyrics leading up to the first chorus of “Except that you’re not here with me/ And I can’t help myself/ So, baby please don’t let it ring/ Cause I just need to tell you how I feel” display the need to confess romantic feelings and essentially be heard. Whether or not anything good comes out of the confession is up to interpretation, but should anyone take Marlin’s advice, we wish you luck!
What truly makes this track so joyous is the build-up to the chorus as Marlin takes intentional pauses accompanied by a drumbeat. The chorus is then followed up with guitar elements that could easily narrate a car ride cruising the highway at sunset — nothing but good vibes.
“How I Feel” is one of those ultimate feel-good songs that are obligatory to play when you need a serotonin boost. Based on this release, Marlin seems to be a force to reckon with.