Stream: Mating Ritual, ‘I Wear Glasses’

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Mating Ritual , aka Ryan Marshall Lawhon (Photo by Lizzyland)
Mating Ritual , aka Ryan Marshall Lawhon (Photo by Lizzy Land)

As pop songsmith Ryan Marshall Lawhon puts his former band Pacific Air farther and farther behind him, his work as Mating Ritual is less and less reliant on synth. Sure, the keys add a twinkle to the eye of the latest Mating Ritual confection, “I Wear Glasses,” but it’s the chugging bass line and sticky chorus that make it a keeper. The boyish vocals and the handclaps give the new single a distinctly ’60s bubblegum flavor — no pejorative here, although we doubt the 1910 Fruitgum Company would have described any of their hits as a “lubricated vision of a could-be hookup with a strong, confident woman … the moment you finally make a move and all the wrong, clichéd lines come out; the moment you lose all fear of romantic pastiche and just let shit fly.” Although they might have thought it. The song, on which Lawhon’s brother and former Pacific Air cohort Taylor gets a co-writing credit, was recorded with Jason Suwito of L.A. synth-pop homogenizers Sir Sly. Ryan Lawhon also appears on a song released last month by RAEKO, Suwito’s solo project. If you need your synths, “Everybody Knows” has a bellyful.

||| Stream: “I Wear Glasses”

||| Also: Check out Raeko’s “Everybody Knows” (ft. Mating Ritual)

||| Previously: “Toxins,” “Hum Hum”