Having the right voice to sing your song is everything when trying to launch a career in pop music, and although I hadn’t been listening to him before hearing the new record Let the Day Decide, there’s no question that George Mallas has the proper pipes for this medium. Songs like Let the Day Decide’s “Don’t Walk Away (Dragon Song),” “Shine,” “It’s Lost,” and “Go and Behold” highlight a freewheeling energy that has been getting harder and harder to find in pop lately, and without the charismatic tone of this singer’s
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voice, I don’t know that any of these songs would have the oomph they do in this instance. Mallas has his own stamp he’s putting on this content, which isn’t nearly as common in the underground as it is in the mainstream.
The piano is the greatest featured instrument in this mix, and while it isn’t alone in making some of the more exciting moments come together, it’s undeniably a best friend to this crooner when he needs one the most. The very swing of “Chasing Rainbows” doesn’t feel like it would be possible if led by guitar strings; there’s just something quite special about the way the keys connect with the verses in this piece as if to guide the beat in a manner that a singer or percussion never could on their own. Piano-based singer/songwriters are on a comeback at the moment, but few that I’ve listened to can keep up with the level of charm this player turns out around every corner.
The lyricism in Let the Day Decide is especially heartfelt given the season, and I would even say that it extends itself into the soulful in the case of songs like “My Beliefs / The Prayer,” “Your Name,” and “Your Love,” all three of which could serve as singles for this LP for sure. Mallas is very deliberate with his delivery throughout this tracklist, but you can tell when he’s got something especially heavy to get off of his chest; he isn’t hiding behind sonic bells and whistles or even the kind of grand harmony we know he’s able to turn out when he has to. This is a player who has a lot of self-control, and I do wish some of his contemporaries would take a page out of his book in this department.
Gentle and reserved at times but always primed to tell us something we need to hear, George Mallas’s Let the Day Decide is one heck of a fine listen if you’re a fan of intricate and finely-tuned pop music. While I do think there’s a little more he could be getting out of his melodic abilities as a singer, the general outline of what this record is makes me very hopeful that we’re going to see even more ambitious work from this singer/songwriter in the future. Let the Day Decide sets a good tone, and if he’s able to match it with a follow-up sometime soon, Mallas is going to have an easy time securing a bigger audience.
Chadwick Easton