There’s something genuinely infectious about George Styles’ refusal to stop making music.
The Boston-based singer-songwriter has spent around 25 years away from the live circuit, but rather than fading into the background, he has kept writing, recording and experimenting on his own terms. ‘Better Conversation’ is the latest result of that compulsion, and it captures exactly what makes his approach so appealing: curiosity, persistence and a complete lack of interest in pretending the process is more glamorous than it really is.
Everything here comes from the artist himself. He writes, performs, records and produces the material in his Boston studio, effectively turning every release into a test of instinct. His own description of the process as a lottery machine full of possibilities and failures is wonderfully accurate. He keeps pulling the lever, keeps chasing sounds, and occasionally something lands with the kind of immediacy that makes all the failed attempts worthwhile.
He’s deliberately coy about the story behind the song, and that secrecy actually works in its favour. Instead of boxing the track into one fixed interpretation, he lets us fill in the gaps, giving the single a playful sense of mystery while keeping the focus on the music itself.
There’s also something refreshing about how little he seems concerned with forcing significance onto the release. He hopes people have fun with it. Some will connect, some will not, and he appears entirely comfortable with both possibilities.
His wide-ranging taste also helps, as he draws from a broad pool of pop-rock-infused sounds and lets instinct dictate the result. That makes ‘Better Conversation’ harder to pigeonhole, but far more interesting because of it.
George Styles simply keeps writing because he has to, and ‘Better Conversation’ turns that stubborn creative impulse into something warm, curious and immediately likeable. After decades away from live performance, he still sounds like an artist with plenty left to say.
