Your Crush – Candlelight (2022)
‘Candlelight’ by Your Crush contrasts dreamy pop acoustics with lyrics packed with heartache and regret. Meticulously crafted, the single is awash with pastel colours that lure you into a false sense of the single, before you are dropped into the raw emotions of the vocals. While bringing the duo’s signature softness to the fore, this single highlights the versatility of their sound as they draw you into a world beyond the pastel surface.
Formed after Yan and Kahn met on a film set in Oahu, the Hawai’i natives bonded over their love for pop music. Drawing on their roots in the film industry, they weave storytelling into a sound that has them standing out in the local crowd. With sounds that border on irresistibly cute, the duo taps into deeper subjects for the lyrics that touch on loss, betrayal and heartbreak.
‘Candlelight’ opens with a soft wash of happy tones. There is a relaxing feeling to the music that makes you think of ocean waves gently lapping against the shore, with birds circling in the distance. The music has a dreamy touch that creates a pastel-coloured cloud you can fall back into and breathe out all the stress you feel. As the chorus hits, there is a rise in the drums that elevate the cloud you are floating on into the clear skies. The delicate touches of the music swirls dream-pop sensibilities around you and make you feel happy.
The pastel dreaminess of the music is really at odds with the lyrics, but strains of the melody are picked up by the vocal delivery. The lyrics draw you into a feeling of heartbreak through the opening track as they question the commitment someone has to a relationship that you are fully invested in. Yan’s vocals open the track and dance higher on the chorus as she brings the raw emotions of the track to life. The second verse is picked up by Kahn and offers a touch of disbelief at how a relationship has gone. The heartbreak and sadness of the lyrics have been delicately threaded into their airy and rather dreamy vocals. This creates a really powerful mixture of light colours and painful emotions that is rather addictive.
Your Crush contrast dreamy melodics and vocals with the heartache, pain and loss of the lyrics in ‘Candlelight’. The music is a soft pastel cloud that you easily sink into and float on through the dreamy melody. The vocals pick up some of this dreaminess while infusing the painful emotions of the lyrics into your veins.
Find out more about Your Crush on their website, Instagram and Spotify.
