introvertrunaway - shara vallee x willo – crispin brooks
The verdict
“crispin brooks flips the wedding-crasher script into an irresistible sun-soaked dance-pop escape with real narrative ambition”
'runaway' opens on a four-on-the-floor bounce with an island-pop lift underneath, a groove that moves before you've decided to let it. shara vallee delivers the vocal at the centre with warmth and presence. brooks wrote the hook first, then kept seeing a wedding scene, a story he eventually flipped: instead of someone crashing in to claim the bride, it's the groom who's still pulled toward an ex, and the interruption turns him into the runaway. best of all, it's bright, bouncy dance-pop that's genuinely uplifting.
crispin brooks is a connecticut-based artist, writer and creative director whose path ran through journalism, graphic design and film before circling back to music. raised around reggae, dancehall, soca, calypso, zouk, bouyon and kompas, he absorbed those rhythms alongside '90s pop, r&b, house and rock, and you can hear that ear across everything he makes. 'runaway' launches the dream jungle, his new media entity, with both willo and vallee as longtime collaborators. he's already got several more singles mapped out from concept to treatment, each built for dance floors and screens alike. loads of fun this one, keep your eye on this guy.
thank u for making this crispin brooks 🏝️