Synth Single Review: “And Which Way Is Up” by Color Theory

by Karl Magi

Color Theory’s “And Which Way Is Up” is an exploration of remembrance and hope. The song opens with metallic tones trembling through a calming melody as a panpipe-like synth exhales. Color Theory’s breath-warmed voice carries the quivering melody with feathery lightness. The background swirls with intense colour while his performance holds a nostalgic ache, rippling tones intertwining around it.

The lead synth is burnished, carrying a sailing melody as chimes flash and the vocals drift softly with a trace of melancholy. Hope continues to bloom in his voice as the chorus expands, joined by a full-bodied synth flitting in interwoven lines.

Rhythmic percussion guides the music forward while the lead synth ascends in a powerfully emotive arc, glowing with sunset oranges and reds before the vocals move with the undulating notes. Piano shimmers and the resonant background ripples gently before silence falls.

As the storyteller lifts the receiver and calls the service line, “a prerecorded voice reads out the time,” as he says he lost the song’s subject in 1989. “You never showed, my Walkman batteries died, our mixtape slowed and warped my sense of pride.” He was convinced the other person had been stood up by their ride as the doorway remained empty.

“I’m suspending my disbelief ’cause something’s come over me,” although he doesn’t know what it is. He goes on to say, “I’m rewinding the tape again, can’t tell you what year I’m in and which way is up.” His memories are like static snow on a screen as the picture blurs, the tape distorts the scene and the song’s subject remains trapped inside a machine.

In conclusion, the storyteller says, “The line is dead, the years have left their mark, but steady hands can guide me through the dark and save me from this narrative arc,” as the doorway finally opens.