Poolside and Amo Amo’s new single lands somewhere between cry-for-help and carefree jaunt.
The musical bed underpinning “Around the Sun” is tailor-made for Too Slow to Disco parties — a cozy, unhurried bass line, shimmering motifs from several synthesizers, multi-tracked vocal harmonies high on the scale. Think of a Venn diagram containing Delegation’s “Oh Honey,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere,” late Seventies Isley Brothers, and late Eighties Prefab Sprout, and you’ll end up in the vicinity of this collaboration.
If the music is a refreshing swim on a summer night, the lyrics betray far more anxiety: “Laying back at the end of the day/Got nobody to tell I’m ok,” founder Jeffrey Paradise sings. “People say that I lost my mind/I’ve got nothing to lose and nothing to find/They might say I’m the losing kind, but that’s fine.” The narrator comes to a wobbly conclusion, seemingly hoping to convince himself that all is well — “Another year around the sun, guess I’ve just been having fun.” Thanks to all the pretty production and a music video full of smiling blondes on jet skis, this will quickly be adopted as a gentle party-starter, though it’s far more ambivalent than it pretends to be.
“Around the Sun” will appear next month on Low Season, Poolside’s first new album since 2017.
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