Dren’s new single “Fading” features soulful vocals from Sophia James. The music video of a flower developing and blooming pairs well with a song that has in the background an evolving harmonic drone and bass pulse with the vocals in the foreground almost traced by a repeating guitar figure like scaffolding for James to dance elegantly about with her voice in modes both intimate and soaring. Hearing the emotional character of the song its reminiscent of an unlike collaboration between Tindersticks and Cocteau Twins with Jeff Buckley arranging. It has an enigmatic quality like taking a journey into a mystical internal space with imagery that combines organic structure with mythical symbolism of human beings brushing with diving inspiration and gleaning bits of eternal wisdom from an experience that communicates in methods that don’t have a direct analog to human language but which we can comprehend and express through art and music meanings that approximate knowledge just out of reach standard vocabularies of transmitting information. In that way the song is like a dream that feels like something we’ve experienced but is best experienced as something felt rather than something fully understood with linear logic. If genre tags need be used to convey how this song might appeal sure it’s sort of dream pop folk and art rock in a modern classical mode yet a piece of music that resonates with the listener on its own accessible terms. Watch the video for “Fading” on YouTube and follow Dren McDonald at the links below. The new Dren McDonald album Vox Pterous releases July 31, 2026 via Appearing Records.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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