“One Last Thing” by Giadora

Mainstream pop just can’t seem to keep up with what the underground is producing in 2020, and if you ask me, artists like Giadora are the reason why. It’s not that commercially-savvy pop doesn’t have its upside, but let’s face it – this September, listeners aren’t as intrigued by the familiar as they are the fresh and untired, which is exactly what you’re guaranteed to stumble across if you listen to the new single “One Last Thing.” In “One Last Thing,” Giadora transforms herself from a little-known indie pop singer to a powerhouse vocalist with a classical identity to her songwriting technique, and though hers isn’t the lone release of note I would recommend to alternative enthusiasts right now, it’s definitely one of my favorite of the pop category to see release all year long. 

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There’s no arrogance in Giadora’s delivery here; if anything, she’s taking her time to make sure her approach sounds humble and harmonizes with the other components in the music. Her interests are never clouded by a beat, or even the hook itself – there’s always a bit of innocence to her execution, as if to imply that her emotions are evolving before us in real-time. This ultimately makes the narrative feel and sound a lot more personal to the audience, and in the pop genre, that’s half the battle artists face when trying to create heartfelt and vulnerable balladry. “One Last Thing” might not be the heaviest nor the most somber piece of material she ever records, but it’s already the most brooding of the three singles she’s cut since 2019. 

The lyrics in this song frame the instrumentation in numerous ways, which despite being an increasingly popular concept among independent players in the American underground doesn’t sound forced or thrown together specifically for that purpose in “One Last Thing.” In her career so far, I haven’t heard an instance of Giadora sounding as though she is deliberately trying to fit into a space she naturally doesn’t; there’s a bit of ambitiousness to the design of her material, but in no way does it suggest some sort of hidden wish to be something other than she already is here. She’s too confident in her statements to be one of those hopeless songwriters doomed to spend a lifetime trying to “find” their sound – she knows who she is, and she’s ready to win our hearts with this look. 

Giadora is well on her way to some amazing things in this life, and for proof of as much, I think you need to give “One Last Thing” a listen before the month of September has expired. She’s showing some significant growth just since the 2020 release “Naive,” and being that she’s already garnered well over one hundred thousand hits on sites like Spotify this season, it’s obvious how eager fans are for a complete album of her work. I like where this is headed, and once you’ve heard Giadora yourself, I think you will as well. 

Mindy McCall