Regular readers may be aware that I sometimes throw in references to some of my favourite 'goth influenced' bands from my youth, growing up as I did listening to a fair amount of Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and of course bands with wider mainstream appeal such as The Cure.
The new track from Swedish / American project Jonathan Christian takes us straight into the centre of that genre, yet done so in such a way that hasn't made me think I'm back in the 1990's, shuffling down Plymouth High Street covered in flour after a Fields of the Nephilim gig - not that I ever did such a thing obviously.
Johnathan Christian is based around Swedish songwriter Christian Granquist combined with New Creatures’ drummer and keyboardist Tiger Koehn and Johnathan Mooney. They describe their music as a "soundtrack to a dark thriller or doomed romance", which I quite like, and their most substantial release was their 2019 album 'Dark Hallways'. It's definitely worth a listen if you're a fan of that style of music, but actually new single 'Résistance Mon Amie' takes things to a different level, an anthemic track that should appeal no matter what your preferred style of music is.
The opening intro is dark and slightly foreboding, and it isn't until 40 seconds that the fun starts, a gothic guitar riff and deep Andrew Eldridge style vocals, but it's the melody that carries the track along, helped by an array of stirring instrumentation, driving strings with the backing vocals offering a great contrast. It's a really convincing and powerful track, which helped by bold production, will be bouncing around your head all day.
The track was written in support of the LGBTQ+ community, with the band commenting: "In a world marred by hate crimes and discrimination, music’s universal language and the storytelling capacity of music videos become vital tools to inspire change, fostering empathy and hope.”
I certainly look forward to more releases, because I really like the slow evolution of this band and their development in songwriting and production.
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