Beirut may have been the first one to make creating a stage name from an exotic city a cool thing, but Toulouse holds his own with this old-timey single. It can be a magical thing when artists combine genres to create a new concept or even just to experiment on a track. For Toulouse’s song “Hurtin”, his amalgamation of R&B and jazz makes you feel like you’ve traveled to a foreign cobblestoned place in the summertime where people still classically danced. Toulouse himself cries out with pure, unadulterated passion and doesn’t try to sugarcoat his anguish. Jon Trainers writes, “Toulouse draws from the past in order to train his gaze firmly on the present.” Toulouse shows us that romance, longing, and traditional instrumentals aren’t dead; rather, they’re simply stored away or hidden for us to discover and reminisce upon.
Sources: Pigeons & Planes, Soundcloud
