I hate cliches.
I love new stuff, unexplored soundscapes and innovative mindsets.
So why the hell do I dig the cliche-infused synthwave? I have no good answer to that. I just do. I think somewhere deep inside me I love tasting that naive eighties vibe again – the decade I were a teenager.
And here’s three fantastic dives back to the age of innocence.
Max Cruise & The Motion Epic (Australia) – Star Citizen
I think I love everything about this track. Everything.
From the cover art to the cliche eighties guitar solo. The rock solid vocals, draped in an arrangement more eighties than the eighties itself. This is not just something that COULD have been a soundtrack to pretty much any movie that decade – it should replace all other soundtracks, they are not needed anymore.
Hell, I even totally adore the artist name. “Max Cruise”… Are there ANYONE out there who don’t instantly understand what kind of genre he dabbles with? 😀
Sixth Floor Memories (Netherlands) – Little Light
… And what do you know, here’s another track, created on the other hemisphere of our globe, with a quite similar solid vocalist. Not as powerful voice maybe, but definitely with just as much soul.
And the production here, the overall sound, it has that legitimate 80s sound that I value so high when selecting track for this column.
It’s very loud mixed this one, louder than we did it back then, but in today’s competitive reality I accept it has to be like that. It still deserves the Beatradar Stamp of Approval for being faithful to the 80s vibe.
The Second Spirit (USA) – Minutes
Here’s a charming track.
It’s a more minimalist arrangement than we usually hear, but man does it flow over with 80s vibe.
The Cure nods their approval in the background here, as do Alphaville and a good collection of synth pop colleagues from the fabled decade.
All three are added to our quite fantastic Spotify playlist, “More Eigthties Than The 80s itself“, where we collect only the finest vocal based synthwave tracks as we discover them!