Will Linley – "Head First"

One of my favorite feelings as a music fan is discovering an artist and immediately realizing you've got homework. "Head First" lands smack dab in the middle of the pop bullseye. It's pure, undeniable pop songwriting with no interest in wandering toward the edges. Two minutes and forty-one seconds later, I wasn't looking up the lyrics anymore. I was looking up his catalog.

The South African singer-songwriter has clearly been busy while I've been asleep at the wheel: more than 800,000 monthly Spotify listeners, hundreds of thousands of followers and a support slot on MICO's Running From a Feeling Tour, including a stop at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville this October. This was still my introduction. Being late to the party suddenly felt like pretty good timing.

The chorus doesn't flirt with commitment; it cannonballs into it. "Tell me to jump and I'd leap" captures the exact kind of romantic recklessness the title promises. By the time common sense reaches the edge of the pool, Linley's already in the water.

Producer John Samuel Gerhart gives all that romantic recklessness plenty of room to run. Bright guitars and melodies keep the song moving at the same pace as Linley's heart, with every piece pointed toward that enormous chorus. Straightforward pop rarely needs defending when it feels this good.

My homework assignment now comes with a syllabus: "pretty boy pop by a lanky ginger."