Here’s What Post-Splendour Guy Sebastian Sounds Like

Guy Sebastian‘s core demographic of middle-aged mums will be scratching their heads when they hear his new song, Candle.

The original Australian Idol couldn’t sound any further removed from the fro-totin’ TV-manufactured popstar who historically defeated Shannon Noll back in 2003 to go number one with the most cookie cutter ballad ever written, Angels Brought Me Here. And the mainstream media is already spruiking his comeback single as an “unexpected new sound”.

But for those of us who’ve been watching at home, Sebbers’ sonic gear shift is far from unexpected.

In fact, it’s all part of what appears to be a carefully curated rebrand. It seems like G-Seb wants to tear himself away from the pages of TV Week and New Idea, and reappear on the pages of The Annual. He’s looking to sneakily pivot away from the world of Delta Goodrem and Jessica Mauboy and into the world of Alison Wonderland and Hermitude.

In short: he’s courting the triple j crowd. And he’s already done one heck of a good job doing it.

After infiltrating JHQ inside a trojan horse that took the form of Paces’ guest spot on the station’s weekly Like A Version segment, Guy then upped his indie swag-rating to new heights by making his Splendour In The Grass debut earlier this year, also courtesy of a collab with the Gold Coast dance master.

And the triple j-lovin Splendour massive went wild for it, because even the most pretentious hipster in Newtown couldn’t earnestly deny the fact that Guy Sebastian is one talented AF singer.

Urban Dictionary puts it best:

And it’s with this new legion of triple j converts in toe that G-Seb has unleashed his brand new single, Candle upon us, an electro-soul stomper packed with processed guitars and thumping drum loops that sounds like the mutant offspring of Hozier, Flume, Diplo, SAFIA and Nothing But Thieves, only with Guy Smiley’s unmistakable golden pipes shining at the fore.

The tune was co-written by Evermore’s Jon Hume and Trey Campbell (who also worked alongside Alison Wonderland & M-Phazes on another soon-to-be-released track) and it sounds not-one-single-bit similar to Battle Scars, Like It Like That, Elevator Love or any of the other earworm FM radio pop tunes that we’ve heard from homeboy in the past.

“I like that I’m just throwing it out there, seeing what it does on its own legs,” explains Guy, who’s just returned from taking a bit of a musical breather.

“Finally I took a moment to get off the treadmill and now I’m super inspired by the industry again because there’s no rules – and electronica is just killing it! I’ve never loved music so much.”

It’s safe to say that Guy Sebastian’s transition from supermarket popstar to legitimate hipster-bonafide artist is already complete. All that remains is to see whether triple j decides to give him the keys to the kingdom, or else keeps him locked out.

And there’s no word yet on whether the Js are keen to back Sebbers for rotation, but we’ll keep you in the loop. For now, cast your ears on the new and improved Guy Sebastian’s debut single Candle, below.

Listen: Guy Sebastian – ‘Candle’

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