Synth Single Review: “Salvation” by Megan McDuffee
by Karl Magi
Megan McDuffee’s “Salvation” delivers a message of hope in a world riven by conflict and division as it comes into being with looming darkness. With a trailing grace, Megan McDuffee’s voice grasps hope and pain as the shuddering underlayer broadcasts shadowed strength. Clashing tones flicker as Megan McDuffee takes me on a journey of dramatic transformation while a pipe organ churns with drama.
Melodically drifting tones catch intermingled danger and possibility while the vocals echo in a message of renewal and rebirth. The organ cries with reverberant richness as the nobility and power within the vocals permeate the music, skillfully delivered by Megan McDuffee. A minor-key surge rumbles while the pipe organ lends gravitas and ancient power before the song grows quiet.
In the far distance, there's “a Technicolor sky, the oranges of the purples are just fragments of our mind.” As the narrator points out that they give life and hope, “an angel's code” that will allow us to save ourselves from ourselves. A “silhouette on the cliffside, little moon-child on the edge” stares into the void, realizing it's not a threat. As she spreads her arms wide and leaves “faith to decide,” the narrator asks if one can hear “our redemption’s clarion bell.”
As we jump, we're finally dreaming as we “virtualize our escape.” Our storyteller describes us “falling, revel in the calling” as we are wired into heaven and the divine. “Something born of the chaos, from the fury of the smoke” manifests as an entity opening velvet wings, telling us we aren't alone.
Our storyteller adds, “we are one, a million souls” as we plug ourselves into “the pure source code” and black-clad salvation. She continues, “even though we are broken, do not fear, do not lament,” because luminous data streams are “light roads to our ascent.”
“Feel the love, all the joy, a new world we won't destroy,” which is a gift from the ancients, as we stop looking back. In conclusion, the narrator says, “leave your tears and wounds behind, our prayers have been answered, enter the temple of the mind.”
