“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” It is Cal Maro’s lamp shining on his intimate performance of his song “Juliet.” Originally inspired by Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet, the single has taken on a new meaning in an acoustic form.
The downtempo tune is a slow-burner full of soulful melodies and gentle instrumentation. Maro’s vocals instantly put you into a trance as you drift off and dream of love. The layers of falsetto are soothing and sexy, grasping every bit of emotion through each vowel. The song is much more vulnerable than the original and puts those polarizing feelings for someone at the forefront. With this new rendition, Maro intended to capture the song’s stripped virtue alongside the suspension of the world in quarantine, saying:
“I revisited my latest single, approaching it intentionally in a more stripped, vulnerable way. No studio – just me, in my bedroom, during quarantine. Filmed and directed by Joshua Thomas, the video captures that voice. It is that isolation, that cyclicality of routine. The alternating waves of inspiration and boredom, production and destruction, lust and apathy, the heat and the cold. Time has seemingly stopped, and the numbness creeps in, but the fire stays hot.“
Taking influence from artists like D’Angelo, Frank Ocean, and James Blake, Cal’s sound is a rebrand of soul, bringing new energy and life to the genre. Cal has spent the past few years performing around New York, working on new material, and collaborating as a writer, producer, and engineer on projects for other artists.
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