LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) Each performing artist faces a decision. They can either dedicate themselves completely to chasing their muse, or they can lower their horizons and attend to their domestic responsibilities. Marrying the stage means neglecting one's partner; pledging one's self to their partner leaves them with less time to appear onstage. Choose the creative person must, but whichever one he makes, he's always bound to have regrets. He'll always wonder if the road he's chosen is wrong.
That pained ambivalence, that fear of missing out, that defiance, heartbreak and determination to make a mark - it's all present in "Wrong," the magnificent, emotional new single by Hudson Thames. The Los Angeles pop-rock artist sings like he's standing on a pivot. Perhaps he is. He's present to the consequences of his actions, and he fears that they're not entirely under his control. As he lets the music swell and crest around him, his desperation, his passion, his incisiveness, and even streaks of dark humor are audible in his performance. By the end of the track, listeners feel like they know him. But they'll know better than to try to advise him. This is a path he's got to walk alone.
Bringing a character to life as vividly as this isn't an easy thing for musicians to do. But Hudson Thames doesn't just sing. He's a seasoned screen actor as well as an accomplished composer with a list of television credits that includes appearances on Mad Men, Welcome to the Family, American Soul, and Ghosts. He approaches "Wrong" as a storyteller would: he knows exactly what to emphasize while he's singing, and how to use the inflections of his voice and strategic pauses to deepen one's understanding of the indecisive artist he's portraying.
His screen training is also on display in Taylor Gray and Violett Beane's moving and beautifully shot clip for "Wrong." On a shooting stage shrouded in shadow and heavy with magic and mystery, Hudson Thames is pulled by forces he doesn't entirely understand through a series of white doors. Behind one is a girlfriend (played with warmth by the terrific dancer Camila Arana) and a potential future life together; behind another is a party in his honor; behind yet another is a microphone and an audience willing to listen. Wherever he goes, he fits right in — at first. Yet in each mini-scene, the audience can see the confusion overtaking him. They know why he swings, with increasing desperation, from option to option. Yet there's an overarching feeling that this dance is all choreographed, and Hudson Thames's protagonist is guided by forces larger than any of these young dreamers can control, or even understand.
