Music Review: BOX - I Let You

BOX, an American musician, music producer, and DJ, develops a warm and unique sound on his new single “I Let You.” You can hear it on the first synth stab, or the vibrant arpeggio, where it ripples in a fantasia. It all blends together in an alchemy that’s ecstatic but understated—fun, unpretentious, and love-filled pop music that is neither too flashy nor too dull.

Hailing from Central NJ, BOX gives this song so much space to breathe that its progressions reach much more meditative proportions. The pulsating breakdown of “I Let You” serves particularly well both as the euphoric swell before its mellow drop melts you with its disarming warmth.

In spite of its tracks’ solid bass architecture and purpose-built mixability, this is head music as well as body music, and it might as well have become a cliché to discuss dance or pop music in these terms. The song’s tight drums are also distinctive, the kick drum thwacks as much as it thumps, creating a rounder-sounding low-end that is physical, but not overly aggressive.

There’s an inherent joy on listening to “I Let You,” though it’s a song about yearning love and heartache, its vibrant melody is accompanied with rhythms propulsive enough to make you sweat. BOX makes use of his sound palette as he blends Electronic and Pop influences with straight up psychedelia while maintaining a cohesive eclecticism.

He gives this song its trademark sense of spaciousness and scale without sacrificing the warmth of the chords and vocals. He seems more interested in spilling all of his ideas on the floor as colorfully as possible than managing them with focus and discretion. And the result is a record that shimmers and glistens with sounds that are packed with lasting melodies that shift in tone and dynamic.