Vladimir Buyakov is only 16, but he already has a fourth original single behind him with «Vsyo Poluchilos’», out September 25th, a pop-funk track with disco undertones that channels the energy of Jung Kook’s “Standing Next to You” through bold basslines, sharp funk guitars, and a full horn section. The Moscow songwriter, an ArtMasters Junior finalist who spent this past summer at Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s High School Composition Intensive, writes the song from a diary-entry perspective, working through everything that usually knocks its narrator off balance: exhaustion, mounting responsibilities, feeling underappreciated, before choosing to let it all go rather than keep fighting it. The cover art carries that same idea visually, Buyakov riding a skateboard down a muted, autumn-toned street with the words “it all worked out” painted where the road markings should be, unsure whether that’s actually true but riding forward anyway.
This song is so fun and is so rhythmically rich that I listened to it multiple times back-to-back even though I don’t speak a word of Russian. The groove is so relentlessly fun you would have to be checked into a hospital if it doesn’t cause you to move, because there might be something wrong with you.
That kind of immediacy tracks with the momentum Buyakov has already built. His previous single, “Only This Summer,” charted on Yandex Music’s Nitro chart, landed a spot on Zvuk’s “Svezho” editorial playlist, and inspired more than 100 fan-made covers, all while his VKontakte following has grown past 80,000. For a songwriter still in his teens, «Vsyo Poluchilos’» is a genuinely confident piece of pop-funk, and it makes a strong case that his rise so far is very much warranted.