George FitzGerald & Lil Silva – Roll Back

“The underlying line basically is the Stranger Things theme.”

Tim: George from London, Lil Silva from Bedford, and this is the second track to be released from his upcoming second album.

Tom: Wow, I thought Luton was the least cool town in Britain. I forgot about Bedford.

Tim: I heard it on the radio yesterday morning, and for some reason it struck me that it could be quite a good TV theme, say, a Netflix one where the opening title sequence is about as long as the rest of the show, and all dark and dreamy.

Tim: A few minutes later, I realised exactly the reason for me thinking that: the underlying line basically is the Stranger Things theme. It’s not quite note for note but similar enough that it wouldn’t remotely surprise me if he’d thought “hey, something like that’d make a good backing for a song”. That’s not a bad thing, I suppose – inspiration has to come from somewhere, after all – but that doesn’t stop it sounding just a bit weird when there’s nothing else happening.

Tom: Mind you, the Stranger Things theme is itself inspired by a huge number of works from the actual 1980s — so perhaps it’s safe to say that it’s repeating the same homage. You’re right, though, this is certainly an attempt at dark and cinematic: perhaps a bit too much. Slowly fading to a second of silence in a track is a brave move, and this more or less pulls it off.

Tim: Having said that, when there is other stuff, it’s quite beautiful. Dark, certainly, and rather haunting. The voice fits the tone of the music perfectly, and the video is…well, along the same lines really. It’s an absolutely lovely track, and despite the darkness I could happily listen to it a good number of times.

Tom: It’d also make a good advert for ASDA.