Novablood - Pretty Disco Lights
Photo credit: Vincent Muller
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Novablood’s Pretty Disco Lights takes listeners on an emotional, deeply felt lyrical journey enhanced by excellent vocal performances and a lusciously layered synthpop background. The songs explore the full range of human feeling over a well-produced, complex sonic tapestry. Novablood is music that takes hold and draws listeners in.
One of the primary reasons for Pretty Disco Light’s strength is lead singer Dave Beattie’s voice. His vocal style combines passion, expression and emotional flexibility in equal measure. He can fill it with power or let it ache and tremble as the song’s lyrics and overall emotion require. He’s also got a wide range that gives him the ability to match the music’s peaks and troughs.
The lyrics on Pretty Disco Lights are another reason why the album works well for me. The writing is clear, strong and explores life, loss, passion and the complex mixture of feelings that can entangle and coexist within us. They weave emotionally engaging stories and create imagery that grabs a hold of the listener and pulls them in.
Musically there’s a great deal of layering and the use of synth instruments to create different tonal colours, timbral differences and sonic textures that provide luscious support for Dave Beattie’s voice. I enjoy the quality of the melodic writing on the album along with the propulsive strength of the drums and bass. All of the elements combine to create compelling and enjoyable songs that are engaging for my ears.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“See The Dawn In” starts off as flaring, medium-high synth rises and a subtly wavering, elevated tone moves into the music. Vibrating, shimmering synth trembles before Dave Beattie’s passionate, airy voice carries the equally impassioned lyrics. Steadily oscillating bass forms a strong underpinning to the emotion-drenched lyrics and the tremulous synth.
The vocal melody glides easily over the glittering synth and the throbbing bass and guiding drums. Chimes flicker through and the bass grows more reverberant and sharp-edged underneath the tenderness of the vocals. Expansive keyboard notes carry a melodic pattern that glows and caresses over the snapping percussion.
The synths have a warm tone like the sunrise mentioned in the lyrics. The luscious vocals add to the pure sun-drenched feeling. Now the full-toned guitar cries out and whirls through a densely cascading solo and Dave Beattie’s voice aches with powerful desire.
This is a song about a deep love and intense passion between two people. Our narrator asks the other person to give him her eyes and “that sweet smile” along with her time “all the time.” He says that he can’t wait to look at her “sweet face” as they share summer days together.
I am drawn to the image of them “dancing in the haze of the morning” and seeing the dawn breaking as “the birds come calling.” Our narrator asks how she can say he’s doing it her way and adds “don’t let these good days go astray.” The storyteller concludes, “Your love it got me without warning, your love was there to see the dawn in.”
Solidly undulating bass and gliding drums pulsate to open “My Subconscious” before Dave Beattie’s smoothly expressive voice comes in. The vocal melody flows like silk over the steady drumbeat and strong bass. Hollow chimes ripple through the song as the vocal melody adds emotion and a warm, sensual touch.
Digital-sounding, open-voiced synth drifts in a slightly mournful melody over the guiding beat as a gossamer sound softly moves around it. The song breaks into dense bass oscillation and the drums keep guiding the music while string-like flashes accent the vocals. I enjoy the way in which Dave Beattie’s smooth voice mingles gentleness and deep feeling.
Hollow synth ripples in tremulous lines as the drums and bass add motion. Distant, wide-open sounds trickle in and medium-low, rich synth chords shift with an ethereal feeling. The vocals unfurl in a soft, airy line and the trembling synth keeps floating.
As the song begins, there’s a wry twist as the narrator asks why anyone would want to know about his life followed by wondering “Ain't you got enough problems of your own?” He encourages the other person to go easy on themselves adding “there's no need to twist the knife.”
Our storyteller says that he remembers “when you showed me home” it was like he was hit as if by a wave and knocked off his feet. He goes on to say that “my subconscious speaks to me” and hides behind the truth until “I don’t know just what is real.” He wonders if he imagined the other person.
The narrator likens people to “many faces on the wall” who are constantly fighting their own private battles. He asks, “Do we know just what they’re hiding from?” He points out the fact that people should take it easy on others “because you might need love someday.” The song’s subject is addressed as the narrator says he remembers them showing him some love.
There’s an ambivalent feeling from our storyteller who talks about waking up with a “weird feeling” in this “strange season.” He says that the days are nameless now, so “they just come and go.” He asks why he thinks that he’s “watching my world sinking” and concludes that “I guess it depends on which way the wind blows.”
“Stray” starts off with shadowy, vibrating synth waves gliding easily through open space. Rapid, solidly pulsing drums and a tinkling metallic bell create a quick beat as rough-edged, angular bass throbs. Dave Beattie’s voice has a pleasingly silken edge and a caressing quality as it carries an aching melody.
Glittering chimes echo into open space and the energetic drum and bass pulse carries the music on. Dave Beattie captures and transfer the emotion in the lyrics effectively. The glassy chimes intertwine through the vocals, adding another layer of lightly touching sound. Drums and bass shift as flaring, digital-sounding high synth accents the vocals.
Round-sounding, trembling lead synth resonates in sweeping swathes through the music. The deep, steady synth pulse adds a hip-shaking feeling along with the endlessly shifting percussion. The vocals arc into the music again, strong and full of deep emotion, as the song drives onward.
This is a song about a relationship’s dissolution. Our storyteller addresses the other person and suggests that maybe they should be the better person and say that “this ain’t working.” He continues to say that he’s had enough of trying to find answers and adds “It’s kinda tough, missing all the chances.”
Now the narrator tells the other person to make their last move because he’s got “no more cards to play.” He just wonders if they’re waiting for the “endgame.” As he continues, he says that he doesn’t know why “I'm a prisoner to your eyes” and adds that “they’re capable of breaking up my inside.”
The storyteller says that just seeing “the remnants of your smile” takes him back into both the good and bad times now gone by. He adds wistfully that “when all is said and done, you were the only one.” He asks the other person to “ignite my flame again” before they leave. He asks plaintively “Why don't you let in love?”
Tightly wound, raised synth moves over sharp-edged, descending bass and constantly pulsing synth to commence “Back Then.” Higher, brighter sounds burst underneath the vocals that carry the gentle, hurting melody. Surging synth tides glow in quickly moving lines while the drums and bass provide an energizing pulse below them.
The resonant vocals are well accented by gleaming synth that enfolds them. The vocals move against the grit-edged bass oscillation as rapid, full-sounding synth drifts. Flickering synth vibrates along with the propulsive beat and the emotive throb in Dave Beattie’s voice adds more feeling to the song. After a huge drum fill, trumpeting synth cries out in an impassioned howl as the drums and bass keep up their relentless pulse.
The narrator addresses an unknown subject, telling them that “you don’t own me, you’ll never control me at any time.” He talks about his youth when “this life was so special” and peace was “essential” along with rights that were fundamental.
Our narrator reminisces about being “young…free…crazy all the time” as they went running through the fields. He reminds us all that “we’re no more than each other, we’re the same.” He adds that he has his “suspicions that we’re all being conditioned” by the powers that be as part of their vision.
Now the storyteller talks about how the “golden days we reflect upon” are gone but that we keep them near our hearts until “those golden days return.”
“Transcendent” comes to life as slowly moving drums and a reverent, delicate synth web flow in, growing in volume. The percussion ticks steadily with a hollow quality as Dave Beattie’s fragile, expressive voice carries the song’s poetic message. A cloudy synth swirls and the bass rumbles below it as the drums shape the music.
Glossy, shining synth adds subtle accents to the vocal richness before the song is stripped back to drums and bass. Dave Beattie sings with a wonderfully gentle, clear quality to deliver the song’s message. Distant, medium-high guitar calls out, adding to the song's deeper emotion. Glittering, string-like synth wriggles high above the piano that brushes the music.
Raised synth moves in wandering drifts over the bass solidity and tapping drum guidance. Piano notes rustle through the music, feather-light and tender, as the bass rumbles and the percussion moves with it. Undulating, flickering high synths roam through the music as the vocals whisper. We end on reverberant, medium-high synth and guiding percussion.
This song’s lyrics are in the form of a near poem. The words talk about an inner state that is “disconnecting reality” as it encourages us to “stop talking, start living.” The lyrics warn that “a monologue” is one’s defence mechanism. The song tells us that “infinite love” is a human condition and points out that “if you believe, you will receive without limitation.”
Now the lyrics speak about becoming transcendent, finding inner peace and “reconnecting synergies.” The song’s words encourage us to “shut the world out and meditate” to become transcendent and regenerate. The song talks of freeing oneself of “media feeds” and letting go of material needs. The song ends by saying that “we'll never know, maybe when we're bolder, when the war is over.”
Gleaming chimes sparkle into open space as misty sound grows in waves and medium-high synth shifts and carries a tremulous line to begin “Decadence.” Oscillating, powerful synth and snapping percussion form a propulsive flow. Medium-high synth carries an active, expressive melody as Dave Beattie's airy vocal sensuality comes in to lift the song.
Bright chimes dance in a metallic line that accents the vocals. Unique percussion taps into the music as string-like synth twines through. Dave Beattie’s voice brims over with breathy emotion as broad synth moves in a brassy line and the chimes glitter. Drums and bass shape the music as the medium-low, glowing synth flashes in along with sweeping sonic flows. Emotion leaks from each pore of the music as echoing, lambent synth trembles out and the song ends.
This song describes a selfish, shallow person who rose to the top only to topple back down. The narrator starts by talking about how this person was “the face of the city” who had everything but “lost it in the casino of life.” The “cars…horses…trophy wife” were all gone and his wife “fell back into her old ways, walking the night.” Now “ the ‘80s turned to ‘90s like a flashback to a dream” as all the “fake smiles and decadence” sat between those points.
Our storyteller points out that “the trust in the mirror” was gone and asks where the song’s subject’s self control went. There’s an interesting contrast as the narrator says that “you gave it all up for Jesus when you traded your soul.” He goes on to point out that the song’s subject was “the life of the party” before the money disappeared. The narrator says that this person “sold your friends down the river, one by one.” In the final lines of the song, the storyteller says that once “I saw you in a magazine, now you’re alone inside your dream.”
“Shadows” stars off as bouncing, tautly stretched bass pulses unevenly. Quickly arpeggiating open-sounding synth is joined by a solidly throbbing drum and bass heartbeat and Dave Beattie’s emotionally expressive voice. Flashing, cascading synth tumbles in before the vocal melody oozes with melancholy and the arpeggiating synths vibrate.
Flaring synth moves in slow chords as another ghostly synth with a floats in the distance. The chorus loses the percussion and bass for a shining synth’s light touch and arpeggiating, hollow notes shiver. A string section adds an uplifting and elegiac melody as it soars out over the song's heartbeat. The lyrics capture the complicated emotions of loss and memory.
The narrator asks, "Hey boys! What you do today?” The response is that they “said goodbye to a friend, this is not the end” as they gave him a send off. He goes on to add that he meant to say that “no matter where or when” the person in the song is with him until the end and “I know he got his way.”
Our narrator talks about how he’ll “be with you until the light goes” adding “turn the lights out” as they go “walking through the shadows, on the dark side of our own lives.” They’ll walk down the street “where we'd meet that we both know.”
The storyteller goes on to say that when they went away, they “hit Berlin from the ‘Lisle (Carlisle)” and he saw the feeling in his friend’s smile “right until the end.” They would play sessions on a Saturday in which they set the “world to rights in every way.” He talks about how the “thin white duke just lost its face” in reference to the David Bowie character and ends by saying that “this Brixton boy just left his space.”
Distantly echoing, drifting synths are broken by a dreaming trumpet as a synth with a similarly trumpeting quality also roves through “Wanshu.” The trumpet has a slowly slipping quality as carries an ethereal melody that glides with consummate ease.
A tapping, sliding drumbeat gives the music forward motion into the wide open spaces of the track. The trumpet’s got a jazzy sensibility as the filmy synth that floats behind it adds more easy going feeling. The percussion is gentle and touches the ears lightly as the sharp-edged synth trembles.
Once again, the trumpet makes its shining and elegant journey through the music, breathing with calm and peaceful emotion. The drumbeat is delicate and the bass is a river underneath it as it buoys up the other musical pieces of the track. I enjoy the sense of cosmic wandering in the trumpet and hollow percussion taps into the music before we fade into silence.
“Pretty Disco Lights” kicks off as broad, open percussion moves with round-sounding synth swelling in smooth waves over the metallic tick of the drums. Dave Beattie’s voice is like molten dark chocolate as it moves into the song. The steady percussion and synth washes lap like ripples on a breeze-stirred pond. The drumbeat and bass become a throbbing pulse below the funky guitar-like synth, giving the track a steady motion.
Dave Beattie’s voice is engaging and sensuous as it curls through the music. Elevated, shimmering synth carries a tender melodic pattern as the funky guitar cuts in with accenting notes. The drums and bass give this song an addictive feeling. Large synth blocks pulsate along with the beat while the shiny guitar lick flashes in.
Metallic synth blocks undulate and the chorus rises above them. Jazzy, funky synth carries an active melodic pattern that unfurls through the music over the smooth drum and bass motion. The song move into a subdued segment as musical elements intertwine, quiet down and then swell back to full dynamism. Through it all, the drums and bass don't let up as the guide the music on.
Our narrator begins by asking to be prescribed “some medication to see me through the night” because he explains that “I used to dream about you, girl, every night” but now she’s gone and he feels lost. He asks her “what you dreaming of” and concludes that she had "just set your sights a little higher than the two of us.” Now he’s seeking out “pretty disco lights” to keep him company at night.
Conclusion
Pretty Disco Lights is mature, complex and emotionally rich synthpop that mingles Dave Beattie’s tremendous voice with well-crafted lyrics to take listeners on a journey through different emotional states and life experiences.
