Max Marginal’s acoustic ballad Memories of Exile, released March 5, 2024, is an ode to an unforgotten past. With lyrics centered around painful longing and accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar, the song is a stripped-back lament dedicated to Marginal’s own regrets. Despite its soulful chord progression, the song’s production comes across as painfully amateur at times. Marginal’s guitar and vocal recordings are often more tinny than endearingly low-fi, stifling the piece as a whole.
As Marginal’s vocals swell with layered harmonies towards the track’s middle and end, the low quality begins to feel more like something you might have saved on YouTube in the mid-2010s with its otherwise simple composition. It’s a nostalgic, familiar sound – and a welcome one, in this case. The simple yet poignant strumming serves as a relentless heartbeat throughout, supporting the song when the vocals fall flat.
Ultimately, Memories of Exile doesn’t deliver all that it could, but has its merits nonetheless. For all Marginal’s potential, the song is held back by its lack of sophistication. In spite of this, he gives us a solid, charming track with deep personal significance.
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