Cody Coyote “There Tonight”

Ottawa’s Cody Coyote imbues his art with unstated significance that pairs nicely with its entertainment potential. This young performer hailing from a Matachewan First Nation background, with Ojibwe/Irish parents, stakes his claim as one of the most important pop voices today with his new single “There Tonight”. He doesn’t shy away, either, from facing thorny topics; one listen to the lyrics for this new track confirms this. His already decorated career is an important contemporary voice for First Nation descendants and the joy he expresses as a performer, even when wrestling with serious material such as this, underlines every moment of “There Tonight”.

It begins with an insistent guitar figure that Coyote sustains for the entirety of the song. The full arrangement, however, hits you with immense power. However, it isn’t power intent on bulldozing listeners. It’s the power of youthful vitality coming through, the sense of inspiration flowing through each passage of this track. The steady percussion pushes the song forward with the same zeal that we heard from the initial guitar and Coyote’s voice rides the crest of that pop tide with singular self-assurance bristling off every syllable.

His pop sensibilities curtail any chance for self-indulgence. Coyote styles this song in a focused fashion without any side trips dragging down its impetus. His lyrics for the track are far above average for this sort of stereotypical pop song and it’s another of the attributes separating him from his peers and contemporaries. The production manipulations of Coyote’s voice are various throughout the course of the song, though never dominant. He achieves a potent balance between multi-tracked vocal effects and straightforward singing that complements the song.

It couldn’t be much more succinct. “There Tonight” doesn’t last even two and a half minutes, almost but not quite, yet packs enough content for a song twice as long. Coyote’s new single is a complete pop package rather than a flawed gem and sets the bar even higher for any future releases. He has a genuine presence as a singer, something you are either born with or otherwise lack, and the buoyancy of his personality shoulders an enormous load in carrying the song.

It’s reassuring to encounter a young pop singer who doesn’t view the genre as a vehicle for merely restating longtime cliches. This isn’t to begrudge the talents of performers with a much more narrow mandate, but Coyote’s arguably more serious approach to the art of creating pop songs gives them greater potential longevity than scores of other pop songs experience.

It’s certain to be a successful single. “There Tonight” adds a new peak to Cody Coyote’s growing list of artistic achievements and exposes his gifts to a wider audience than ever before. Talent comes from assorted places and levels of society, no one group has a monopoly on self-expression, and Cody Coyote’s new single “There Tonight” solidifies his standing as one of modern pop music’s most promising talents. He’s building an unassailable legacy, one song at a time, and “There Tonight” is a worthy contributor to the bedrock of his reputation. 

Mindy McCall