It is easy to get hooked on the effortless vibes and sophisticated nature of “Our Penance,” vibes that echo the likes of such dreamscape, slick ’80s synth pop as The Blue Nile or China Crisis, but there is something else at work here, and it is always the “something else” that is the most fun to explore.
Here, there is a sheen of melancholy, darkness even running through the song. Now, I’m not going to go as far as suggest that Still Ruins push into darkwave or gothic realms, not this time out at least, but I would say that back in the day, when the formative post-punk worlds of darkwave and synth-pop were not that far apart, you could easily imagine them opening for, Rosetta Stone or Clan of Xymox.
But that is ancient history, I guess, and what we have here is an infectious and effective slice of pop, pop that might echo past scenes and sounds, but in the cyclical and ever-returning way that music has, right now is the perfect time to be a band with such shimmering and poised 80s synth-infusions and inspirations running through their sonic DNA.
It is also a single that spreads itself out; the original single is accompanied by four additional remixes that take it along all manner of tangents and towards new horizons, to alternative destinations, and new sonic conclusions.
Less a look to the past, more the sound of picking up that same torch and running headlong into the future with it.
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