SINGLE REVIEW: FYNN – Icarus Waltz
FYNN delivers a captivating and unusual journey on ‘Icarus Waltz’, a track that’s as theatrical as it is intimate. At its heart, the song is a meditation on social anxiety, exploring the push-and-pull between panicked inner thoughts and the seductive, personified voice of temptation. The arrangement leans into a 3/4 waltz, giving the track a woozy, almost fairground-like quality, with accordion, honky-tonk piano, organ, and music box textures painting a surreal, dizzying landscape.
Vocally, FYNN is striking — dreamy, arty, and theatrical with just a hint of gothic menace. There’s a dramatic, slightly uneasy energy that pulls you in, like the performer is balancing on a high wire above their own anxieties. At times the track feels like a big-top circus, complete with clownish energy and lion tamer tension, yet it never drifts into chaos. The composition is abstract in a Dali-esque way: warped, surreal, but meticulously controlled, making it immersive and distinctively FYNN.
The song’s shifts between inner dialogue and temptation are mirrored in its musical presentation. The interplay of textures and dynamics keeps you off-balance in an intriguing way, capturing the mental oscillation of anxiety without ever feeling disorienting. Yet beneath the theatrics, there’s a certain laddish charm — an approachability that stops it from feeling overly inaccessible.
‘Icarus Waltz’ closes with a simple, lullaby-like refrain that brings the journey to a gentle end. After the twisting, uneasy passages, it offers a sense of serenity, like finally sinking into sleep and giving the mind a rest from racing thoughts. The track is a rare combination of drama, surrealism, and human relatability, cementing FYNN as a contemporary artist who thrives on creating immersive, thought-provoking soundscapes that feel entirely his own.
