When I first started up 'Spirit of the Night' by Tesla Boy, I thought I was listening to something decades old. That familiar, high energy 80s feel is the lifeblood of this tune.
Once the bassline kicked in I was trying not to giggle like a schoolgirl. Beautiful instrument choices and a song structure that does not branch out into experimentation, thus keeping me in the time machine, so to speak.
The lyrical style was a bit surprising, so until I could get used to an unfamiliar accent, my head wasn't in the track. The vocals hiss and lilt a little too emotionally, with a nasal edge that pinches certain syllables, but it is still an era-specific vocal style. After a few listens I calmed down and started to accept the personality the singer was trying to project.
I thought the track couldn't get any better and it proved me very wrong indeed. The chorus is beautiful; perfectly bright synth illuminates and lifts the mood of the track up into the clouds. I was a kid again, playing Turrican on my Atari home computer, with Chris Hulsbeck's 16-bit soundtrack in my ears. Yes, they borrowed wholesale from 80s compositions, but they did it with such clarity of purpose that the end result was an almost spotlessly authentic reminiscence.
The bridge was a nice break in the pace, with a combination of staccato synth and choral repetition building into an steadily energetic synth solo. The final section is an instrumental continuation that left me wanting to hear more of the first and second sections again. A couple of times I stopped the track once the bridge ended, but that was mainly because I had to hear the first half of the song all over again.
This tune takes masterful era recreation and fits it into a modern pop structure that ensures no part of the tune wears out on the ears. The final section could have done with a better arrangement, but there is really nothing seriously wrong with it, the problems just left me wanting more of what I liked, and that can't be a bad thing, can it?
Not many tunes have parts that give me goosebumps. The first half of this track is forever in my brain, and for that reason alone it makes the cut.
No comments:
Post a Comment