Nightshifts – Tunnel Vision (2021)
The saying goes that the devil is in the detail. Well, actually, this fits in perfectly when you try to find something new and refreshing in modern pop music. Getting your music to as many listeners as possible is one of the key rules of pop. For that to be the case you have to get everything from the melody, lyrics to truly minute details to be able to do so. It is exactly those details that can make or break both the music and the artist. If the details are overused you may never make it. But it is actually that detail that can bring in something new and fresh, and the audiences in most cases don’t miss it. Listening to ‘Tunnel Vision’ the new single from Toronto-based artist Nightshifts (aka Andrew Oliver) you can fully realise the importance of detail in pop. At the same time, it makes it clear why Nightshifts has had millions of streams on Spotify so far.
So what’s so special about ‘Tunnel Vision’? Well, for starters, that Oliver doesn’t really have a music tunnel vision himself. He expands and contracts his sound with intricate melody shifts, something so characteristic for only the best artists. No wonder Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon has only words of praise for Oliver, who remixed the band’s ‘Michicant’ track.
It is that penchant for detail that makes an excellent arrangement to further propel Nightshifts’ ‘Tunnel Vision. Oliver combines some vintage synth sounds with guitars and subdued drum machines (they’re there to give the song the rhythm, not dominate it) to give the song a full-bodied sound. It is a sound that shifts like a modern musical version of those “classic” lava lamps. In a way, ‘Tunnel Vision’ makes them really cool again.
Actually, Oliver is able to explain himself in words too. He explains his fascination with “one-person production-based artists” like Tame Impala, Bon Iver, and Neon India; “I loved how these artists created a defined-aesthetic world around their music, and how it didn’t feel like a singer-songwriter project, but something closer to a band.”
Yes, these are all the reason why Nightshifts’ ‘Tunnel Vision’ is a perfect spring soundtrack.
For more from Nightshifts check out his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
