“What’s Left to Be” is a captivating track from Tom Lee-Richards. The New Zealand-based artist compels with an emotive vocal presence and meticulously layered production, where atmospheric guitars, mellow keys, and cinematic textures converge. Pedro Hamdan’s gently hypnotic percussion adds well throughout, bolstering Lee-Richards’ stirring vocal presence and intriguing guitar pulses.
The second single from the upcoming EP Spinning for Shape, “What’s Left to Be” rides on quaint guitar flickering and lush lounge-friendly keys to start, as the opening lyrics ask: “Did you ever discover, just where we’d be, if I was ever to give you everything?” The wordless, haunting vocal elongation that ends the initial verses crafts ample momentum, driven at points by French Horn lines (Fabio Ogata) and eerie synths (Felipe D’Angelo). “What’s Left to Be” is a moving, resonating success from Tom Lee-Richards.
Lee-Richards describes the track’s inspiration as “the tension in a new relationship between being self-sufficient and self-contained and revealing yourself and your vulnerabilities.”
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This track and others featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of May 2022’ Spotify playlist.
The track is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Emerging Indie Folk.
