In many ways, 8TURN’s December single Like A Friend was the smash that got away — a spring/summer track released in the dead of winter as everyone was cobbling together their year-end best-of lists. Making matters worse, the group never promoted it until weeks later. I haven’t listened to that song nearly as much as I should have, but find it very charming each time it comes around. Now, it’s finally time for a proper follow-up with new single Electric Heart.
Having heard clips of this one, I’ve been looking forward to it. August has been a pretty lousy month for big pop melodies and Electric Heart promised a huge chorus supported by bounding, anthemic production. In this way, it’s very reminiscent of ZEROBASEONE’s excellent Blue from earlier in the year. The full song is a little less streamlined than I’d expected, making me curious how it will fare with time. Like Blue, Electric Heart builds to tremendous peaks but also spends much of its time in a slower gear. This contributes to a sense of build, though the arrangement could take even greater advantage of the contrast.
At times, Electric Heart sounds almost like a survival series signal song, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I like it because it’s taking a pop song approach I always enjoy, but its sense of uplift also feels increasingly generic and that keeps the track from becoming top shelf material. This could easily improve with time, but for now I’m tempering my rating until I see just how much I return to the song over the next few weeks.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 9 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.5 |
