Quick Fix Singles: Willy Mason’s ‘Restless Fugitive’

“Restless Fugitive,” is the ambient serene track for that transcendental trek across one’s soul from Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter Willy Mason.

The minimal rhythms, which sounds like it originates from the most barebones percussion set available. It backs Mason through the track- and takes one aback. It’s especially so when we consider the fact that the producer is none other than M.I.A. and Hot Chip maestro, Dan Carey.

Mason and Carey release an all-natural herbal anesthetic for the inner journeyman, via the ear canal, that mellows and numbs the listener’s senses. The beats hypnotically sedate and ease, a desert mirage that feels as if the sun rose and set with every other click and crackle of the tambourine, leading to Mason’s inculpable profoundly precise lyrics. The fundamental rule for all writers, show don’t tell, is exemplary in Mason’s succinct successful songwriting. “Walking home all burned and broken / With the front door, my heart opens / Once inside, words are spoken / Asking how to mend the broken.”

Each line of Mason’s quatrain style lyrics is prophetic and oracular. His voice acts as the soothing cool condensation of sweat on one’s skin midst of a torrid summer’s heat. Border on vagabond folk and spiritual cleanse, “Restless Fugitive” unearths layers of dispositions beneath the superficial surface, that feels like subtle exegeses on wars, society, and life today and life hereafter.

Backed by a four-piece band, with brother Sam Mason on the drums, Mason got his big break when the indie-rock deity, Bright-Eyes (Connor Oberst), signed Mason to his label, Team Love. Since then, Mason has gone on to tour with bands like Deathcab for Cutie, Ben Kweller, Unbusted, and Radiohead.

In 2004, Mason and his band released their debut album, “Where the Humans Eat.” Two singles off the album, “Oxygen” and “So Long,” both went on to climb UK Singles Chart and Albums Chart later the same year.

Then, in 2007, the band went on to release their sophomore album, “If the Ocean Gets Rough,” which too received fair and friendly responses from listeners.

During that same year, Mason took the opportunity to work with The Chemical Brothers as he provided the vocal works for the elector-music duo’s song, “Pickup Truck,” on the album, “We Are The Night.”

“Restless Fugitive” comes from the upcoming third album, “Some Time Soon,” which from first tastes makes it safe to say that Mason and the desert-like destitute found in the simplistic sounds will source him with glow and heat, of course, only of the rewarding sorts.

You can download “Restless Fugitive” now by visiting: http://www.willymason.net/

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