Tim: I heard Madden’s excellent track Alive recently, and thought to myself “hmm, I wonder if Madden’s done anything else recently” and then it turns out he has. To be more precise, this, which as it happens came out just a couple of weeks back. (Oh, and the HD version of the video is at 50fps, so if you find that as distracting as I do, you might want to switch down.)
Tim: I swear, I’ll never get used to it. But the song? Well, it didn’t start promisingly, because in late 2017 that is, let’s be honest, a fairly generic voice/synth style. With competition like this, you’ve got to be very special to pull that off well, and, again let’s be honest, most of this isn’t.
Tom: And that chorus is very much a “yeah, I see what you were going for there”. A little Random Access Memories, a little… well, a little of a lot of things.
Tim: HOWEVER (and it is a however that deserves the capital letters), when the instrumental breakdown comes along (well, if we’re counting distorted vocal samples as an instrument), it picks up quite a bit, and the rest of the song from that point on is very enjoyable.
Tom: Takes a long time to get there, though, doesn’t it? More than half the song. It’s basically a song where the middle eight is better than everything else, and that’s not a good thing.
Tim: Yes – it would be vastly improved if that middle eight was brought out to be a standard post-chorus. As it is…hmm.
Tom: Also, counterpoint: those vocal samples sound a bit like a clucking chicken.
Tim: OH MY GOD they do and now every part of it is problematic. Thanks, thanks a lot.