Sometimes it only takes a sentence to sell a song to me before I’ve had the chance to listen, and “it sounds a bit like Grizzly Bear” is one of those sentences. It’s worked countless times, and it’ll continue to work for as long as I survive as a writer.
The most recent example of this personal pandering to my taste comes courtesy of Brighton seven-piece SoftTop; a merging of many members of the city’s psychedelic vanguard including Hutch, Ideal Living and TINMAN. Their second single as a group, ‘Runaway’ is power pop balladry at its most sensual and soulful, complete with all the emotional peaks and troughs, quiet lulls and dramatic crescendos, and the sumptuous falsetto of vocalist Miles Goodall.
While the track explores a well-trodden theme of heartbreak and mourning a partner that has left you feeling as though you’ve become a ‘runaway’, the way it couples up with the soulful arrangements and sway of the song is how the true emotional heft of the track makes itself known.
The Grizzly Bear comparison has already been made, but lying beneath that are shades of long-forgotten cult darlings Goldheart Assembly, along with a handful of chord changes that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Frank Ocean track – a truly divine concoction.
You might not have any reason to do it right now, but it feels as though it might be the perfect song to lie rigid on the floor to, bawling your eyes out. With ‘Runaway’, SoftTop have truly exposed my soft, gooey centre, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of when the track is simply that good.
Words: Reuben Cross // Photo: Willow Shields
‘Runaway’ is out now on Crafting Room Recordings. Stream or purchase the track via Bandcamp.