Tag: St Lucia

St. Lucia – Dancing On Glass

“More or less, everything I want from a St. Lucia track.”

Tim: New St. Lucia track for you, the lead from their second album, and rather enjoyable listening, as I see it.

Tim: And there we go. Nice intro to the band in the video in case we’ve forgotten who they are, kicking off the otherwise somewhat incomprehensible video.

Tom: I can’t tell if this is an actual attempt at Art, or someone parodying Art. Maybe that’s the point.

Tim: I’d say that even with actual Art, there should be some element of sense, so I’d go with the latter, and hope I’m right. Following the names, though, a rather immediate reminder of the band’s somewhat excellent style.

Tom: And that’s a reminder I needed, because apparently we’ve covered one of their tracks twice before, and I couldn’t remember them even after that.

Tim: Ah, well, at least it’s there, then. We have heavy beats with a light electro tinge, loud yet entirely enjoyable vocal – more or less, everything I want from a St. Lucia track. The melody’s great, the instrumentation used to deliver it is great.

Tom: “Great” is a strong word. It’s good, it’s competent — it’s just not standing out for me. That main synth line, with its almost duck-quack sound, just started to grate — and while it’s not a bad chorus, it’s not all that memorable.

Tim: See, I disagree: for me, it’s all, well, great.

St. Lucia – Elevate

Tim: Somehow, we managed to review All Eyes On You, a track of St. Lucia’s from a couple of years back, twice, and both times, we gave it a near-unqualified four thumbs up.

Tom: That’s embarrassing. Still, with over 900 tracks in our archives now, that’s bound to happen sometime. It does suggest, though, that while the track is good it may not be all that memorable.

Tim: Well, the two times were twelve months apart, but anyway. Here’s a new one.

Tim: So how’s that for you? Because for me, once again it hits pretty much all the spots.

Tom: It does, but it occurs to me that I can’t actually recall much of it, even after listening twice in a row.

Tim: We have a quietly building ten second intro, then the production hits properly and pretty much lets us know what we’re in for.

Tom: It’s vaguely pleasant — and those synths have a distinctly 80s vibe to them that works rather well.

Tim: Very enthusiastic production, which at times almost competes with the vocal to be the most important part of the song, especially after the middle eight (which is actually more of a middle sixteen, but let’s not get bogged down in technical details), when there’s no semblance of it stepping out of the way to make room for the singing – just bring it on, and lets see which of us people like more.

To be honest, I don’t think it matters – they’re both damn good, and I’m happy to listen to all five minutes of this. As long as I’m not in a hurry.

Saturday Flashback: St. Lucia – All Eyes On You

This is about a year old, and flipping brilliant.

Tim: This is about a year old, and flipping brilliant. And that’s all the intro you’ll need.

Tom: Well, that was a bit good. Is there a sudden trend for retro, 80s-style pop? Because I’m liking it.

Tim: Good. And while you’re still reeling from it, let me introduce St. Lucia. He started out in South Africa, moved to London for a bit before heading off to New York, where he now spends his time coming out with fantastic pieces of music like this. The thing about it is that it’s very very simple: there are a couple of tiny verses, but it’s mostly about the chorus, lengthy and fairly repetitive (especially once it’s been repeated twice without a break towards the end). But I love that repetition, because what a tune this is. I don’t know what it is – the rhythm, the notes, maybe both – but that chorus strikes me as almost perfect.

Tom: Perhaps it wasn’t quite that perfect for me, because I could have stood for a bit less repetition: but the middle eight saved it for me, and the last chorus paid off nicely.

Tim: The instrumentation beneath it is lovely as well – the closing part is wonderful, and while the sax break in the middle seems a bit out of place (at least if you’re not watching the video, where it seems oddly appropriate), when the piano hits (or when the camera pans back) you get a glorious thirty second build-up to the re-entry. However great the music is, though, it’s the chorus that gets me. It’s just brilliant.

Tom: You know, I don’t have much to add to that. It’s ace.

St. Lucia – All Eyes On You

A big dance tune, with some proper instruments over the top.

Tim: From New York, this song was on Radio 1 when my alarm woke me up at an antisocial hour on Saturday morning. And my, word, did it get me out of bed in a good way.

Tom: I’ll try and leave innuendo aside, shall I?

Tim: You could do, but you never have done before.

Tom: It starts a bit slowly, doesn’t it?

Tim: Well, yes, it does take a minute or two to get going properly, but when it does it’s absolutely brilliant.

Tom: I found myself quietly nodding my head along to it after that first minute, and when it finally kicked in – well, yes. I wasn’t expecting that.

Tim: A big dance tune, with some proper instruments over the top, and all sorts of strange somewhat blurry vocals. At forty seconds, the middle saxophony bit could be said to be a bit long, and it could probably be chopped in half and no-one would mind, but when my only complaint is that part of it is a bit too long, I think we can safely say this is a good tune.

Tom: Saxophone solos! They’re coming back, Tim, mark my words. And I don’t think it’s too long at all – the piano-chord build justifies it.

Tim: There is that, but I just think it could all be sped up a little. Anyway, you were saying?

Tom: I wouldn’t say it’s entirely a dance tune, though; it’s not got enough of a beat for that. It’s designed for listening, rather than dancing, I reckon.

Tim: There’s an element in the chorus – especially when it comes back for the big climax – of Take That’s The Flood, which is a bit strange, but it’s certainly not a problem. Mash-up, anyone?

(Oh, and the weird face thing in that video does have a reason for being there – it’s the single artwork. Just so you know.)