I guess this is the last single before Lydmor’s fourth album is released but I’m not sure this will be on it. She’s one of the most innovative people on the circuit and during the original lockdowns back in April and May (remember those halcyon days?) she wrote a song online via social media with the help of her fan club members (I’m pretty sure this is the song) and this video was subsequently created the same way, with contributions again from that fan base.
She says, “I have a very dedicated group of super fans who have created a secret Facebook fan-group and subsequently invited me in. There are 150 members worldwide (actually 225 Jenny, with those counting skills you should be on ballot duty in America) and because of my live streams during the corona-lockdown, I have grown very close to them. Now, I have given them a challenge where I have made the song [‘The Gadget Song’] available to them through an on-line folder and then told them: 'You have to film, there are no rules, but you have to try to film something that looks like what’s already there.” So if one person films something about dancing, then the next person should dance like that too. So it's a collaboration THEY are creating.”
She describes it as a very personal song, at one point she sings, “even if it hurts for a minute, gotta stretch myself to be in it,” which is a specific image of her sitting in a night-liner tour bus and being sad, thinking about how she has to stretch herself, even if it hurts a little. That’s interesting because I never thought of this polymath as being anything other than a super-confident self-motivating go-getter who can tackle anything, and with relish. And then I recall her worrying disappearance from social media for about 10 days in the midst of the first lockdown and my realisation that she is human, like everyone else.
I’ve said before that if push comes to shove I prefer her ballads. This one starts off like it will be another electro-pop extravaganza but then quickly settles down into a gentler dish, with even a flavour of RnB and a showcase for her lyrical ability. I have to say though that “Oh my Lord, tonight I’ll call you up, might have a delicate cry” does have echoes of Highasakite’s “it’s been a long time since the phone rang and it was you”, Ingrid Helene Håvik’s celestial plea in ‘God don’t leave me’.
Musically, the song contains an unusual acoustic guitar contribution (She’s very much a keyboard/synth person) from her producer-companion Christian Vium, of Go Go Berlin. I’m anticipating more collaboration like this on the album, which can’t come soon enough now.
The Gadget Song was released on 6th November by HFN Music.
We normally show a Spotify link but the video is part of the story here.
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