The single opens with a production sheen so immaculate it practically gleams. This is pop music engineered to within an inch of its life, yet somehow retaining enough humanity to avoid the sterilised perfection that plagues so much of the genre's output. Van Mullem's vocals—smooth, measured, tinged with an affecting vulnerability—float atop a bed of futuristic synths that wouldn't sound entirely out of place on a Weeknd record, though perhaps with slightly more European restraint.
What strikes one immediately about "Damn!" is its refusal to rush. In an era where pop songs seem designed with TikTok's fifteen-second attention span in mind, van Mullem allows his composition to breathe, to develop, to seduce rather than assault. The production, handled in Amsterdam's thriving studio scene, layers electronic textures with the precision of someone who understands that negative space can be as powerful as sound itself. When the beat finally drops—and it does, inevitably, satisfyingly—it feels earned rather than algorithmic.
The lyrical content, centered on what the artist describes as "late-night thoughts, overthinking, and emotional vulnerability," treads well-worn territory, admittedly. The small hours have long been pop music's most fertile ground for introspection. Yet there's an honesty to van Mullem's approach that elevates the material beyond mere genre exercise. This is music for scrolling through your phone at 3am, for questioning decisions made and unmade, for that peculiar modern anxiety that manifests when the world is asleep but your mind refuses to follow suit.
The R&B influences seep through the track's DNA like watercolour bleeding into canvas. Van Mullem's vocal delivery owes an obvious debt to the genre's recent titans—there are moments where one catches echoes of Frank Ocean's wounded falsetto or the hushed intimacy of Daniel Caesar—but he's developed enough of his own personality to avoid mere pastiche. The melodies stick, which is no small feat in an oversaturated market; "Damn!" possesses that elusive quality of feeling simultaneously fresh and strangely familiar, as though you've been humming it for weeks despite this being your first encounter.
Where the track truly excels is in its restraint. This is not maximalist pop, not the kitchen-sink approach that sees every conceivable sound thrown into the mix. Instead, van Mullem and his production team have crafted something more considered, more adult. The futuristic soundscapes are present, certainly—the synth work is genuinely inventive, particularly in the song's middle section where crystalline arpeggios cascade like digital rainfall—but they serve the song rather than overwhelm it.
For an emerging artist still finding his voice, "Damn!" represents a considerable achievement. Van Mullem is clearly an artist with vision, taste, and the technical chops to realise his ambitions. If this is the sound of him still evolving, one can only imagine what comes next. In a pop landscape often dominated by the brash and the obvious, his more subtle, nocturnal approach feels genuinely refreshing. "Damn!" indeed.