When you review many artists you sometimes forget, embarrassingly, that you’ve covered them before. Such was the case with Vola Tila and I was surprised to see my own comment on the PR, to the effect that “There’s something of the anthemic majesty of Pink Floyd here, produced out of synths, guitars and both live and programmed drums,” while also likening them to The Smiths.
So what would this song, the first track to be released from a 2021 debut album, throw up? All will be revealed but first a little background.
They’re a west coast Swedish duo, formed in 2018 by producers Johannes Henriksson and Richard Andersson, who sought to create the music they craved to make as well as find an escape from the algorithm-driven pop music they've been involved in writing and producing for several years. They have previously released an EP, ‘Personality Apocalypse’, in 2019.
They say, “This song somehow reflects our thousands of questions about who you really are, and what really remains if you are forced to let go of all that? When we found the chorus, we could loop it for several days and just live in that nostalgic feeling. There is so much sadness in there, but also hope to be on the way," says Vola Tila. It isn’t a ‘Covid song’, but concerns “two people letting go of each other.”
It’s a slow-building synth-ballad (a sub genre that I made up but I think it defines it quite well), with the sort of electronic effects you might associate with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (in fact you could draw comparisons with OMD on several levels) and a powerful melody line. It might have benefitted from a bridge and it does peter out a little disappointingly at the end. My gripe though is with the vocal, which keeps varying between a perfectly respectable tenor and a falsetto which sounds like the vocalist had an accident with a zip. (Think ‘There’s something about Mary’).
Neither Pink Floyd nor Morrissey make an appearance in this one.
Overall, quite a good song and one that suggests the album will be worth keeping an eye out for.
‘Forget That I Love You’ was released on October 28th.