Synth Single Review: “Flashing Lights” by Saturday AM & Don Eastland

by Karl Magi

Saturday AM & Don Eastland’s “Flashing Lights” is a bittersweet examination of loss and hope. The song starts as spectral notes flare and Don Eastland’s trembling, honey-sweet voice carries the melancholy, affecting melody. The drumbeat continues to rebound as the shivering tenderness in the vocals grasps my heart, contrasting with the shadowy bass. A synth flashes like city lights in the velvet night as the underlying pulse presses forward. Matt Freeland’s production brings the whole song to vibrant life.

The drums throb alone before Aaron Boyd’s voice echoes with smooth expression, capturing the hurting darkness in the lyrics. Chimes sparkle like hopeful starlight above the steady foundation as the chorus rises with dawn light and the vocals soar. The undulating low end moves with the aching performance and the chimes flicker with distant moonlight before the song ends.

As they “rewind the reel and play it back, trading stories to relive the past,” the narrator speaks of the demon that the song’s subject invited and tried to hide. He says, “Don’t let go now, it’s not forever,” and encourages the other person by telling them that it’ll get better.

There’s a hand reaching out for the storyteller and “flashing lights in the night,” pictures of him and the song’s subject as their song replays. He says, “Stories of better times can’t stop the changes.” He adds that “I have a secret, a shadow I can’t outrun.” He’s trying to fight the demon in his chest.

As the song ends, he repeats his plea for the other person not to let go and his promise that “it’s not forever, you’ll see.”