Kele Fleming – This Is Not Religious
“This Is Not Religious” is the latest release by Kele Fleming, an outstanding Canadian singer-songwriter based in Victoria, BC. It’s her second piece of work in 2025, arriving after “Crickets,” another excellent standalone single released earlier this year that you should also check out as soon as possible. Originally written in the early ’90s, “This Is Not Religious” reads like a journal entry because the lyrics were drawn from one of her journal entries at the time. It serves as an internal monologue, a stream of consciousness, a look into the heart and mind of a young woman grappling with her identity. The song captures various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, making it a highly relatable composition that will resonate with the broader audience. Sonically, Kele Fleming blends a singer-songwriter approach with some of the finest properties borrowed from different but complementary music genres, such as folk rock, indie rock, and alternative rock. She uses all these styles as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and details to uplift her new song to an entirely new level while remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. The song shines with both modern and retro folk rock qualities, showcasing Kele Fleming’s profound admiration for this music genre. Therefore, these experimentations with various approaches, techniques, directions, and styles resulted in a catchy, memorable, engaging, beautiful folk rock song that will immediately resonate with anyone who appreciates music performed straight from the heart.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
As soon as you press play, you’ll notice that Fleming put a lot of effort into this fine piece of sonic artistry. Each vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuver has its place and purpose here, making “This Is Not Religious” one of the finest modern folk rock songs. The song arrives with a perfect structure, garnered with many profoundly detailed segments, marvelous instrumentations, and brilliant ideas. Kele Fleming’s beautiful vocal performance acts as a centerpiece here, elevating everything to new heights, commanding attention, and leading listeners on an epic journey through the expansive sonic universe. Her impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes with such precision and finesse, emphasizing all the instrumentation included throughout the entire track. Besides decorating all those segments and instrumentations, Fleming’s voice also contributes more than necessary emotional depth and complexity over an already intricate song structure. You’ll also hear how the additional vocal layers and back vocals give more richness and an anthemic vibe, making this composition even more appealing to the ears. In the meantime, the thoughtfully assembled instrumentation crafts a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. You’ll notice how all those interplays between guitars and keys articulate together without overwhelming each other. On one side, there are catchy, memorable, luxurious chord progressions delivered on acoustic guitars, while the other side shines with fascinating, beautiful, ethereal keyboard leads, themes, melodies, and harmonies. Kele Fleming stacked layer upon layer, building a lush atmosphere that immediately wraps around the listening apparatus and refuses to let go long after this song ends.
Beneath all those lush keys and guitars, you’ll hear how the equally impressive bass guitar rumbles with vividly hearable, intricate, warm-sounding notes, offering more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while simultanously acting as a glue between the mentioned instrumentations and rhyhtmic patterns. These basslines are rich, deep, dense, and heavy, contributing more groove, warmth, and detail while not overwhelming those guitars and keys. Like the remainder of the instrumentation, the drums play a significant role here, keeping all the orchestrations in line while simultaneously dictating groove and pace. All those beats, breaks, fills, and accentuations cut the ambiance, supplying this calm, melodic, harmonious composition with more dynamics and complexity. As you can see, each instrument has its place and purpose here, making this track such a beautiful piece worth repeating over and over again. “This Is Not Religious” is a modern folk rock masterpiece, crafted by a highly experienced singer-songwriter who knows her sonic direction. She conveys emotion through a set of carefully written lyrics and melodies, offering a memorable listening experience that will unquestionably resonate with anyone who loves marvelously composed music. “This Is Not Religious” sounds like a diary you desperately want to read, illustrated with all those lush vocal harmonies, catchy guitars and keys, intricate basslines, and wonderful beats. It’s a poetry translated in musical form that you’ll gladly place on your playlist. Head to your favorite streaming platform and check it out.
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