Star Pilots – Only For Tonight

“Kicks in early, doesn’t stop.”

Tim: Well, here’s a name we’ve not heard in FREAKIN’ AGES or about five years to be more precise, when they showed us Heaven Can Wait.

Tim: And what a fantastic track!

Tom: Kicks in early, doesn’t stop.

Tim: I think we can safely say they’ve done what every comeback track needs to do: keep pretty much the same identifying sound, while also bringing it up to date with a contemporary style. Their identifying sound was pretty much “Start going, don’t stop”, and that’s so very true – even the traditional; dip for the second verse pretty much just doesn’t happen, and the song’s all the better for it.

Tom: Agreed: early on, I thought “it’s not really big enough”, before remembering that, no, this is the first verse, not the final chorus. Heck of a start.

Tim: Nice video as well: a showing of the gang gradually getting back together, with only the slight disappointment of them not actually climbing onto a space shuttle at the end, instead of the comparatively dull idea of them walking onto stage.

Tom: It is an endearing video, although, my word, the director needs to be a bit more perfectionist with his shots. How ridiculous does the Star Pilot running at 0:43 look? It’s like he’s gambled on a fart and lost. And well done to the Star Pilot at 0:57 who keeps failing to swipe right to unlock his iPhone. The Subway banner at 1:47. The weird transitions and harsh speed-ramps. Sorry, I’m being pedantic, but the rest of it looks so gorgeous that the minor clunks seem really strange.

Tim: No, the pedantry’s okay, although I think the first issue is maybe that he just doesn’t know how to run properly – his reappearance at 1:20 shows it off again.

Tom: And, um, if you’re going to have them walking into an arena, you’d better make sure you’ve actually got shots of them performing for that crowd, on that stage. Otherwise it just looks like they’re arriving in time to sweep up.

Tim: Oh actually that is a good point. But let’s finish on a final fun fact: in case you were worried we’ve only been hearing from one of Ingrosso’s (out of Axwell Λ Ingrosso) cousins, one of these guys is also his cousin. Brilliant.

Tom: I hadn’t worried about that, but thanks for the update.

Star Pilots – Heaven Can Wait

Kicks in hard and never really stops.

Tim: I trust you’ll remember In The Heat Of The Night, their big hit from a couple of years back; here’s their latest.

Tom: Bloody hell, Tim, that kicks in hard and never really stops. My brain immediately thought ‘Top Gun’, but that might have been connected to the fact they’re called ‘Star Pilots’.

Tim: When the chorus hits it’s almost like a different song – it suddenly goes from ‘mmm, so so’ to ‘ooh, yes’ in a single beat. The first chorus just about provides enough energy to ride out the second verse, so as long as you don’t mind a mediocre first part, I think you’ll be happy here.

Tom: Now, you see, I disagree entirely: I think the verses and bridge are great – it’s like an 80s song with modern production values. But the chorus lets it down a bit for me: it’s just that the verses are so full-on that it’s hard for the chorus to compare. Until that key change. That glorious key change.

Tim: Oh, isn’t it just fantastic? The best thing for me: it was entirely unexpected – it came out of nowhere and just was excellent. I do have one tiny niggle though: as the main version of the song, this goes on a bit too long. I can understand as a dance mix it would need to stuff on the end for the DJ to mix out, but as this is it should end at around the 3:15 mark, I feel.

Aside from that, since it’s easy enough to trim a song manually: excellent work.