Robert DeLong is one of the industry’s most DIY and innovative singer-songwriter’s. With a live show that is a completely unique and captivating experience in itself, the Californian based musician always leads with the unexpected.
It’s been two years since he’s released original music, but that’s about to change with his playful and nostalgic new single ‘Better In College’. Featuring rising newcomer Ashe, he returns with one of his catchiest and most pop leaning hooks yet. The polished sound is something you’ve become acquainted with in the past through the likes of Louis The Child who also take a very DIY stance with their production. But he brings it into his own and makes it feel like an evolution from ‘Favorite Color Is Blue’ and ‘First Person On Earth’.
Opening with a stripped down version of the hook, his auto-tuned vocals slide into the first verse before erupting with energy on the infectious hook. Ashe’s smooth vocals perfectly intertwine with DeLong’s gradient sound, and he cuts their vocals together in a really cool and DIY way.
Lyrically the song reflects on a youthful romance that was ultimately doomed because of their age, but at the time felt so hopeful and promising. “It was love, and it was hate. It was real, but it was fake. We were never gonna make it out in time. We were barely getting by” he sings during the first verse before further admitting, “I thought that love was forever. I thought that you made me better. Back then, I was a fool”.
From the very first listen he will draw you in with it’s playful and bouncy sound that takes his DIY foundations and sprinkles a pop polish on top. And you’ll even find yourself singing along to the hook immediately as if it’s been embedded in your brain this whole time.