Future Analog - Hope – Vol. 2
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Future Analog’s Hope – Vol. 2 is an emotionally nuanced, passionately charged album that combines the soulful vocals of Wesley Reid with Future Analog’s production skills to create music that grabs hold of your heart and won’t let go. The way in which the singer’s vocal chops combine with the synth palette used by Future Analog creates a lushly woven tapestry of intense feeling. When one adds first-rate melodic writing, the end result is moving and deeply touching.
The heart of Hope – Vol. 2 is most definitely Wesley Reid’s vocals. He has tremendous range and the ability to express complicated and conflicting emotion. Whether his voice is broadcasting broken-hearted pain or hopeful dreaming, it takes every nuance and gives it to the listener with full-throated strength and deep feeling. The way in which Wesley Reid carries the music is essential to why the album works so well.
Future Analog combines an interesting sense of synth sounds along with different tones and textures to paint pictures in sound. The way in which he can draw directly into one’s imagination helps to convey the lyrical and vocal beauty within the songs. The different instruments used create unique soundscapes and carry listeners into the world created by the music.
On top of this, Hope – Vol. 2 features strong melodic writing by Future Analog. His melodies complement the emotion within Wesley Reid’s voice and the lyrics that unfold. Each melody works with the words to drive home the feelings within each song, and all of them come together to create an album that is intensely ear-pleasing.
My Favourite Songs Analyzed
“Before I Found You” starts off as powerfully swelling tones gleam with a thousand tiny lights and the foundation of the music rumbles as a phone dials. A distant female voice rises as the cleanly snapping drums move with scintillating chords, erupting in sunlight. Wesley Reid's voice is smoky and resonant, carrying the melody’s joy. The underpinnings cut with a strong pulse as Wesley Reid takes hold of the words and fills my heart with their emotional strength. His tender vocals are luscious and gripping while the chorus shines with opalescent luminosity and the frolicking synth sparkles like early morning light.
The bass undulates as a trickling synth gives off pearlescent light and the beat is broken. The chorus climbs with sincerity while the chord changes add crystalline tones and clapping percussion presses on. As the song ends, the chorus is cut by the guitar, which irradiates the music with brilliance and doubles down on the song’s touching emotive core.
The storyteller “couldn’t find the middle ground” because he felt down. The other person came into his life and “turned my world around” as well as upside down. He asks the song’s subject to hear him and what he has to say because “I was lost without you.”
“Before I found you I couldn’t see the light,” and nothing felt right for the narrator. When he found the other person, he realized that they were going to come around and be by his side. He concludes that before he found the song’s subject “skies were grey” and there was no escape. The other person’s light illuminates his darkest days and every step they take. He finishes, “I was lost without you.”
Rushing sounds move with exotic percussion to begin “Lights Shine Bright.” A synth erupts with warming luminosity, joining Wesley Reid's silken voice as it carries the uplifting melodic pattern. The drum beat is strong as a broadly glowing synth exudes light like a city skyline at dusk, while the vocals wrap around me with caressing expression. The melody has a rising, positive quality as the angular bass cuts and quickly flashing notes move like streetlights flashing past. The resonant vocals jump with joyful soul as the steadily guiding underlayer rushes forward.
As the synth shines like skyscrapers lit up at night, the vocals unfurl with a sense of contentment, escaping from the world’s gloom. Wesley Reid fills his voice with worshipful encouragement as the intensely glimmering lights illuminate like neon in the darkness. The foundational pulsation drives forward as the lyrics are captured by the moving singing before the track comes to a close on the rippling synth and choral joy.
“Hold on to the starlight, let it be your guide tonight,” is what the storyteller encourages the song’s subject to do, as they are “dancing beneath the pale moonlight, chasing all our dreams tonight” and fighting the world’s darkness and sorrow. He urges the other person to hold on because “we are wild and free, one spark, feeling the energy.”
As they stay awake until dawn, our storyteller points out that the city is asleep, so he and the song’s subject can dance all night and “reach for the skies, like stars on the rise.” He says they will “paint the darkness with shades of light” as they shed their worries and let their dreams fly while darkness guides them and lights shine brightly.
The narrator says the sun will rise, “but now we’re free, chasing all our wildest dreams.” He says that, holding his hand, the song’s subject will find a reason to believe. He wants to show the “yearning hearts” who have broken dreams and lost promises how “it has to be, one spark, we’re feeling young and free.” He concludes that they both know the “sun will rise, defy the night.”
“Second Chances” opens as a worshipful choir moves with a rippling synth and a swelling female voice. A deeply peaceful feeling washes through as Wesley Reid's broken voice is joined by rising synth that shines like a new dawn. The low end is shaping as Wesley Reid's honeyed tones carry a melody full of hopeful ache. I enjoy Wesley Reid's soulful energy as rebounding percussion joins the chorus, which leaps out with anticipation. Elevated tones glimmer like the stars while the bottom pulse drives on.
A strumming guitar adds another level of brightness as the interlocking underlayer throbs. Wesley Reid reaches out with his chanting vocals as an echoing female voice adds a warming quality. The chorus shines with lushly glistening light, like a star to wish on. A synth arpeggiates with silken luminosity as the song fades into silence.
Our narrator asks the song’s subject how they’ve been, adding that it’s good to see them once more. He continues, “I’ve been here every day, hoping you would come my way,” because he’s been missing them. He adds, “Each day I feel blue, I’ve been longing for your touch.” He wonders if they can make it right or if he’s losing the other person, so he asks, “Do you believe in second chances?” because he’s asking for one.
Now the storyteller talks about how he missed the song subject’s smile and their embrace, as well as how they “light up every space.” The world’s changed, and they have too, but “all of our worries, let them be.” He doesn’t want to have a clandestine meeting because he’s choosing to be with the other person. He asks if they can make it right and points out that he’s listening to them.
As our narrator says, “I won’t let the past define me anymore, I’ll prove I’m worth a second chance,” he adds, “In the ashes of the past, I’m hoping we can find a way to start again.” His heart knows the truth, and he’s meant to spend his life with the song’s subject because he’s asking for a second chance.
A lonely piano drifts with exhaling notes as Wesley Reid's voice chants to start “All I See.” A hectic bass pulse moves with the heaving rhythm as the piano continues to create desolate sensations and luminous synth flashes. Wesley Reid's tremulous, pained voice carries the choppy melody as the rhythm throbs. As Wesley Reid captures the hurt of this world, guitar moves with distorted drama.
The synth adds flaring brightness as Wesley Reid stabs me with the sincerity of his feeling. My heart is pierced as the broadly woven synth radiates force and the guitar floats smoothly. The chorus cascades as the chanting adds a distorted darkness while the beat throbs with sinewy power.
The guitar shines with raging strength as Wesley Reid conveys his disgust and frustration with conviction. Drifting notes slide past with meditative tranquility, contrasting with the shadow and weight below. Chimes flitter and the track slowly exhales into silence.
The storyteller wonders, “How can it be, you’ve lost all humanity, you don’t see me.” He shouts and pleads as he endures “the heat unleashed on me” while the song’s subject shows no mercy. All the storyteller can see is pain and suffering that “is enough to make me scream, it’s unforgivable.” He asks why it should be that “my hopes and dreams are broken” as he begs to be left alone. He finds himself on his knees with his dignity gone and “your sins uncertain.”
“Searching” opens as colliding drums erupt and a pumping low end is joined by swelling, irradiating synth chords. The lead synth carries a melody full of growing joy as chimes fill the music with metallic luminosity.
Wesley Reid’s voice erupts with celebratory energy while the brilliant synth reverberates with flashing light. The melody sails out with happy fulfillment as tremulous, shining notes wrap around the exciting tune that draws me into the feeling of joy which permeates the track.
Wesley Reid captures all of the emotion within the lyrics as the echoing synth moves with dynamically varied percussion. Angular notes tumble as the scintillating lead synth spills out a tender melody that feels satisfied and fulfilled.
The chorus flies out with encouragement and freedom while the huge drums pound and the bass throbs. The tumbling low end is joined by computerized notes that ripple between stereo channels as a raised synth flashes into silence.
Our storyteller has been searching for the song’s subject, hoping that one day he’d find them. He adds, “Never thought you would come into my life now,” pointing out that his heart skips a beat each time he sees the other person.
In the chorus, the narrator expresses gratitude for having found the song’s subject after a long search. He adds that he isn’t sure what he would’ve done “if my searching had not led to you.”
Silky, rounded synth flows gracefully to commence “Free.” Peace radiates from the synth chords that shift before the groove kicks in and Wesley Reid's engaging vocals reach out with a positively slanted but slightly hurting feel. The rhythm jumps with bouncy dynamism as the vocalist carries the freedom and joyful release in the lyrics.
The way in which the music unfolds leaves me feeling relaxed and at liberty while the steadily pumping beat presses on. As a frolicking synth glimmers, Wesley Reid's voice rebounds with heartfelt strength as the active percussion snaps cleanly. As airy sounds shift, the lead synth contributes pure happiness and light as the driving beat presses on and the song comes to a stop.
When he wakes up in the morning, our storyteller finds a note saying the song’s subject is leaving. He adds, “So you’ll be leaving, we’ve been here before, I’m so tired of all these silly games.” He goes on to say, “I am more, can’t ignore what you did to me,” as he tells the person to hit the door, adding that it was never meant to be. He continues, “I set you free!”
With his eyes open, the narrator has come to understand “the way that you were treating me was all in your plans.” Now he is resistant and says, “Hear what I say, it’s time for you to go. I gave you everything.” He goes on, “Hear me roar, out the door.” He deserves more and can’t ignore that it wasn’t meant to be.
As the song concludes, our storyteller has come to love himself “through the good and bad.” In the case of the song’s subject, he says, “Won’t take this another day, hear the words I say to you.”
“Give Me A Sign” comes into being as delicately trickling notes move with percussion that rebounds between channels and bass that creates supporting undulations. Wesley Reid’s voice wraps around me with elegant, smooth expression as the percussion adds a steady pulse. The vocals echo with breath-warmed feeling as the synth flits past, while the piano carries a melody full of loving sensations.
Reverberant tones shimmer like the sunlight referenced in the song as the hollow synth exhales and notes shine delicately. Pure affection fills Wesley Reid’s performance as the limpid synth shines above the steady bottom-end beat. As the song progresses, Wesley Reid wrings intense emotion from the words while warmly swelling notes float around him, and the track slides to an end.
“In this age of thunder and of rage,” it seems to the narrator that one can feel the ground moving beneath their feet. He says that while he barely knows the song subject’s name, he can feel that “love’s sweeping down on me.” He asks the other person to give him a sign because “you’re like the brightest ray on a cloudy day.”
Our storyteller says that the song’s subject’s smile lights up the room and “chases away this doom.” When he sees the other person, he feels complete and adds, “I hope and yes I pray that you will find a way of sweeping down on me.” He concludes, “Give me a time,” because the other person is like sunlight piercing the clouds.
Conclusion
Hope – Vol. 2 is full of all the complexity and pain of being human. The way in which the excellent vocal performances are combined with intriguing synth sounds and melodic beauty weaves a tapestry that draws me in and holds my attention as the music unfolds.
