By Deuce

So, you decide to cop the Anywhere EP from Pol Sembrano. After running through the four cut-affair, it becomes perfectly obvious that the track that stands out the most—that stands up, as it were, and speaks the loudest and clearest—is by far “Number (Single Mix)”.

In so many ways, it showcases the best the singer/songwriter/producer/arranger/composer has to offer. It has a bona fide drum pattern, for starters, with none of the standard four-on-the-floor stuff here (although he does tease you with the lightest 808 snare for the first couple of bars before hitting you with a real one on top of it). Moreover, it’s something you can put your head into and, depending on your mood or choice of player, even has some pound to it.

Plus, it’s the one cut that doesn’t sound like it was programmed by a computer, an algorithm, or some other expression of what was once termed cognitive computing. The main keyboard melody? Simply sumptuous. He’s got elongated synths swirling around, back and forth, on the track and an innocuous type of 80’s feel to it, especially with the effects dripping from the tom toms that show up between passages.

Moreover, this tune is the one in which his style on the mic sounds most at ease and appropriate on the track. It’s almost as though you can see him leaning into the mic, or perhaps the speaker. Plus his falsetto, which is the part of the range he arguably is the most cogent with, simply soars on the hook, with a plaintive quality that’s sheer undeniable. “When will I ever learn/ that I must take a number/ and hold it in my fist until the zero disappears” he wonders, as though he were a man that means it.

The majority of the other tunes all have extremely overt pop aspirations, particularly “Anywhere (Single Mix) 1). Granted, they’re well written, have distinct verses and choruses, and the overall quality of the production is beyond contention. “Anywhere”, for example, would sound terrific as a halftime track for almost any professional sports event. Its sense of happiness pervades wherever it’s played.

But for genuine sentiment and something to throw on outside the club (or sports arena)? This reviewer’s going back to “Number”.