Having only discovered this band recently, I’ve become absorbed by Half Alive’s (or half•alive) up-beat, dancy, Two-Door Cinema Club vibe. I’d highly recommend watching their videos too. Especially still feel. That and the video for this song, arrow, are so full of colour, contrast and general bizarreness that it’s hard to look away.
The song is pretty bass-heavy in a really good way with short guitar stabs in true indie pop style. Slowly, it builds up into a heavy drum and synth chorus with an overly-edited vocal riff which is, again, expected from this style of music.
Despite my claims that the song falls into the category of generic indie-pop pap, I really enjoy it. Like I enjoy Two-Door Cinema Club, The Wombats, Circa Waves, The 1975, Vistas and the list goes on. I can see this song being played the party of someone who thinks they’ve got a superiorly unique indie music taste. It’s a good dancy tune. I’m not denying that, and what these guys have got going for them is their quirkiness, but I do think half of that comes from their visual aesthetic. Maybe I should do a separate review on their song still feel as it has me much more interested in the potential of this band - it’s incredibly catchy, but it’s more aurally interesting, taking much more influence from electronic dance music and displays little bits of Everything Everything in the vocals and rhythmic choices.
Reading this, you can probably tell I’m a bit on the fence about this song. I enjoy it, but I’m not sure of it’s importance in their career. We’ll see how it’s received. But I have to say I hope they keep the style up that started in the still feel video. It’s captivating. Let me know your opinions in the comments!
Comments