Tom: Our regular reader, CB, sends this in with the comment “I am pleasantly surprised”.
Tom: You know what? So was I.
Tim: Me too – I was first introduced to this a few days ago with the line “probably your new favourite song”, but I wasn’t sure because Erik’s more recent work has been, well, not dull, but hardly exciting play-on-repeat stuff. This, though – it’s much closer.
Tom: At least with that introduction: it’s summery, it’s bright, and it sounds like someone actually managed to fuse the 1980s and 2010s somehow.*
Tim: True – it brings elements of the funk renaissance that’s happening at the moment, but there’s enough modern bits in there that it’s still very listenable.
Tom: And then the first lyrics hit, and he’s talking about driving past a funeral, and a woman crying. I realise the photo of him attached to that track has a similar emotion on his face, but it rather broke that summery effect.
Tim: Hmm…perhaps, but it does provide an effective way in to the rest of the song – we don’t know how long we’ve got left, so let’s spend all the time we have together, and that fits the mood of the song very well..
Tom: Once that particular bit of mood-whiplash had passed, though: it’s a pretty good chorus. It’s not a floor-filler by any means, but as long as the DJ mixes it in after that weird first line, I reckon it’d fit quite well.
Tim: Agreed, except for the first line bit – a dance floor crowd wouldn’t pay attention to the lyrics, and if anyone does, it’d almost be the musical equivalent of skipping the opening part of Up – the rest would work and be happier for it, but narratively it wouldn’t be as complete.