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Photo: supersipho

Good-looking, good-natured, and full of good vibrations, one might suppose Will Linley is the artist most likely to be cast as the seraphic romantic lead in the next hit Netflix series but a more than passing listen to his lyrics reveal a furtive depth. Led by the veritable hit “miss me” this young South African artist has popped globally with a small stable of moody ‘happy sad’ tunes, revealing an intoxicating mixture of sticky and sweet melodies and introspective, longing lyrics. 

Fostered by a musical upbringing and a belief that music was ‘part of my makeup,’ Linley a path that didn’t have a lot of continental equivalents in Cape Town but took the leap into his passion despite it being unfathomable. Pursing the two-step process of convincing himself, then his immediate supporters, he “shattered the closed-mindedness” of his surroundings before leaking his music on TikTok, with his first single having immediate foreshocks. 

In “Last Call,” Linley welcomes a more varied vocal cadence, wider tempos, and a very punchy piano-buttressed chorus that screams car ride sing-along. Tackling the classic nostalgia of falling in love, especially the serendipity of a night that seems to last forever, the song, while autobiographical, feels as if it is a generational moment in time being captured before our very eyes. “Last Call” is a bit of a deviation from the South African artist’s budding catalog but the evident range that this single employs further adds to the narrative of Linley’s emerging stardom, as this format pairs with the large format standards that litter commercial playlisting. 

The smart nuance of this evolution is that Linley clearly has the performance of his songs in mind, keenly knowing that the audience engagement built in the live setting perseveres over online vitality. The summation is obvious, while this single might ring out the end of 2022, this will not be Linley’s last call.

Watch the "Last Call" lyric video below: