As the title of the new SOFTWAVE EP suggests, every song on it has an aspiring story.
‘Aspire’ is the Danish synthpop duo’s first new body of work since they opened for OMD at the start of 2020 on the Scandinavian leg of their ‘Souvenir’ greatest hits tour.
The inspiration came after Catrine Christensen and Jerry Olsen were chosen to remix a couple of track for Andy Bell of ERASURE’s ‘Club Torsten’ collection. These songs document their own existential crisis over the lockdown period while seeking to motivate others to achieve new goals.
Opening ‘Aspire’ with the bittersweet superpop of ‘Thank You For Breaking My Heart’, it reflects on the positives of a toxic relationship ending, with shackles unlocked and new opportunities beckoning. Embracing the glistening shades of vintage ERASURE, this solo Christensen composition declares “Without you there’s no dark” as light shines again through this catchy Eurodisco with Olsen’s Clarkean interventions.
More rugged, ‘Supernova’ is the classic SOFTWAVE vein, with rousing verses and uplifting choruses over a backing track rich in counter melody akin to ‘Something Is Missing’. Dedicated to Andy Bell himself as a one of a kind worth looking up to, it also ably captures the bubbly poise of ERASURE.
With a fight back, ‘Don’t Bully Me Again’ gets its message across in a midtempo number seeking détente, while ‘Wake Up’ plays with rhythm variation to reinforce its tension, poignantly declaring “we’ve run out of fuel” as a challenging winter looms.
Ending with ‘This World’, this number is a highlight as it presents a darker austere than previous SOFTWAVE songs, with a depth that could point to a future direction. “We want people to go deeper and reflect on how they see the world today” said Christensen, “We just want people to think themselves”. Despite the sombre feel, it is a call to action that fits with the aspirational aims of this EP to encourage people not be afraid of the dark and to stick together.
As strange times continue, despite the adversity, there is always hope and it is a message that SOFTWAVE have provided clearly with ‘Aspire’.
‘Aspire’ is available digitally from https://softwave.bandcamp.com/
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https://open.spotify.com/album/5HszMfuNt2GHFhw6bPaw68
Text by Chi Ming Lai
14th October 2022
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