It’s woozy sun-drenched pop, it’s ridiculously catchy, it’s mysterious, it’s Swedish – I think I’m in love.
After being shown some significant blog-love on I Guess I’m Floating earlier this month, word has started to get out about Scandinavian duo Light Vibes, despite the fact that ‘Wish We Had’ seems to be the only track floating around. It feels completely natural that this song seems to have sprung from nowhere just as the skies get really blue, and there’s a touch of it’s-nearly-summer giddiness in the air. The appearance of ‘Wish We Had’ now, is like the discovery of a new freckle, or walking around your home town in July only to find that there has been an influx of tanned, beautiful people you swear you’ve never seen before. In other words you don’t know where it came from, it’s a little bit like magic, but also feels like the most natural thing in the world.
A swaying and lush pop song, ‘Wish We Had’ is an electronic track that sounds simultaneously organic, not because you cannot hear the obviously synthesised elements, but because the mixing has been done so well that it all feels very unforced. The music of someone like Panda Bear has a similar quality, and equally here – as complex as the music is, in the listening it is easy because it immerses you, requires that you only give in to its hypnotising power.
Beach Boys-esque guitars and a sixties-sounding whirling organ plant ‘Wish We Had’ geographically within the great beach-pop tradition, but do not stop this song being entirely of the moment too. The adjective ‘hazy’ is thrown around too much these days in reference to music, but you cannot deny that it does seem to capture something universal within a wide range of recent musical styles, and Light Vibes have the hazy to get them an invite to that party too.
Above all, with ‘Wish We Had’, Light Vibes have made a brilliant pop song. Musically it is a joy, and they capture the optimum pop emotion – the sad smile. Practically glowing in summer happiness, but already anticipating the coming sadness of when summer comes to an end. It is youth anticipating old age, innocence already being coloured by cynicism.
In other words, it’s perfect.
Light Vibes – Wish We Had by TheDiscoverialist
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