Ironically, Mark Houston’s debut single, ‘Open up the Pages’ is the aural equivalent of a page-turner, each progression immerses you more in the canter, it’s mesmeric and unpredictable in equal measure.
For their debut, the Spokane, WA-residing singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist played with funk, alt-folk and indie-pop elements to construct a sweetly connectable single, confrontational through the directness of the lyricism and soothing through the jangly, shimmering pop-rock melodies.
The grippingly poetic lyrics paired with the tribalistic experimental-to-the-point-of-artfulness instrumentals made Open up the Pages one of the most promising debuts we’ve heard this year. Yeah, it’s only March, but the bar has been set extremely high by Mark Houston.
Open up the Pages is now available to stream via Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast