Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a resurgence of the power ballad. Artists like The Weeknd, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Bruno Mars have reminded us that big hooks, lush instrumentals, and urgent exclamations of desire continue to thrill us. Bedroom pop mastermind Noah Whiteside is back with a modern, sleek approach to the power ballad with “Bring My Baby Back.”

The song centers around a programmed groove, complete with crisp hi-hats, snare claps, and a thumping kick. As Whiteside layers keys and synths around the groove, it almost resembles a 90s R&B song from the likes of Snoop Dogg or TLC. The chorus is accented by woodblocks, vocalizations, and an arpeggiating synth line. Though I’ve labelled this song as a power ballad, the instrumentation is fairly lean. Whiteseside has taken the formula for a power ballad and stipped it down to its most essential elements.

And the most important element is the hook, which Whiteside delivers with ease. Nearly every melody is short and snappy; there are virtually no sustained notes (other than background vocalizations). Even the repeated chorus refrain of “won’t you bring my baby back” stays brisk and to the point. The genius of this move is that the lyrics are delivered to us in bite-sized form for our ever-shortening attention spans.  It is truly a pop song for the smartphone generation, one that rewards short attention spans with easily digestible hooks by the busload. 

In the accompanying video, Whiteside switches from scenes of recording the song to wandering around what appears to be a Northeastern city. It brings to mind the solipsistic year we’ve all experienced, as well as the loneliness of a love-gone-cold. If you’re tired of listening to Player’s seminal power ballad classic “Baby Come Back” and want something a little more modern, check out Noah Whiteside’s “Bring My Baby Back.” You won’t be disappointed. 

Watch the video for “Bring My Baby Back” below, and check out an exclusive interview with the artist! 

Were you influenced by the heartbreak pop songs of the 70s and 80s? You seemed to channel those influences into something that sounds much more modern.

Ever since I was young I always seemed to gravitate towards more emotional songs and styles of music. I’m sure there’s some kind of psychological reason for this but hey, I’m a musician not a doctor so it is what it is. I remember listening to a lot of 70’s Top 40 love songs by artists such as Elton John, Bad Finger, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney and all the big players of the time. Something about the chords, textures and lyrics of those songs just pulled me in.

I’m a huge fan of 80’s music and it was like hearing the truth when I would hear songs about heartbreak and sadness by artists like The Cure, Bryan Adams, Michael Jackson, Prince, you name it. I guess in a way I’ve added a little modern zest to what they did. I just admire the songwriting of those times so much.

What influenced the music for this song? I hear some 90s R&B, and even some more modern lo-fi beats influence as well.

The music for this song in particular is actually some of the most basic I’ve ever recorded. One day I was sitting at a keyboard and just played those three chords over and over again for hours. I could feel that something was there but I just had figure out what that something WAS. After doing that for a while I was messing around with some drum machines and I got this really crisp sounding 808 drum machine sound and I just dialed in the basic rhythm and from there the song sort’ve wrote itself. It’s a very minimal and spaced out track musically.

I focused a lot on using reverb and other effects to make it sound like there was a lot going on but in reality I think the final cut was 5-6 tracks. The influence for the song may have come from listening to a lot of Prince and Lionel Richie but who’s to say you know? I think for us musicians who listen to so many different kinds of music it gets hard to pin down one exact stream of influence.

The video seemed to be filmed over this winter. A lot of us were experiencing an incredibly lonely time, with the pandemic and cold temperatures cutting us off from friends and family. Do you think that influenced the song at all?

Absolutely. I got the added bonus of a breakup thrown into the mix with the loneliness, pandemic and bad weather so I haven’t been able to see any silver linings as of late. A big thing for me writing this last batch of songs was I think I had a little bit of a quarter life crisis.

For the past couple years, I was all gas no brakes with playing shows/recording with myself and other bands and I had a lot going on in my social life so when It all came crashing down with the pandemic and general heartbreak/sadness, I think I was able to look around for once and I didn’t really like what I saw. I’ve been alone in my apartment for the past 5 months just saying “What is going on?”. I guess it’s that escapist lifestyle that makes us musicians want to get out on the road and travel.

What’s next for you?

I’m putting out an Ep at the end of this month and then I’m hoping to put out an LP in May/June. I’ve been toying with the idea of maybe playing some shows with a full band once live music is allowed to be a thing but I think it’s a little too early to say. If everyone wears a mask and washes their hands maybe they’ll be able to see that circus haha.

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