Drawing us in with an alt-country Americana guitar soundscape with brooding vocals, Scott A. Flaxman opens The Love of Strangers with poetic prowess and situational prose. We immediately connect with the high emotional quotient of the lyrics, and the sentiment of standing alone with our ambitions when those closest to us fail to understand them.
It’s a really relatable message and the AI-assisted production is next level. The mix is flawless, the guitar solo is out of this world, and the song itself feels deeply human. In essence, The Love of Strangers explores the strange contradiction of finding more genuine encouragement from strangers than from the people who know us best.
This is rooted in psychology that has been deeply explored for eons, but feels more prevalent now with the internet and social media than ever before, so we are grateful to Scott for shining a light on this. The repeated idea that the love of strangers is the loudest voice of all gives the track its emotional core.
The slow-building arrangement gives The Love of Strangers a strong sense of progression, gradually moving from isolation towards something more triumphant. The Americana and indie-rock elements also bring to mind the more soulful, gravelly storytelling of Rag’n’Bone Man or Imagine Dragons.
We could genuinely see The Love of Strangers securing a sync placement in a character-driven independent film, particularly an Oscar-winning film like One Battle After Another, but also in a coming of age movie like Incoming. It also has the kind of narrative arc that could work beneath a pivotal montage of someone finally receiving recognition like Marty Supreme.
For some context, Scott A. Flaxman is an American songwriter, audio producer and video director based in Northern California. Alongside his work as an attorney, he has developed a catalogue of narrative-driven indie rock and cinematic projects, combining songwriting with self-production and visual storytelling. We have added The Love of Strangers to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TIMELESS playlist, whilst we continue to stream Scott A. Flaxman‘s wider discography, including Water on the Mainframe, and The Neurotic Singularity.