One Track Mind

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There isn’t much I know about London, England quartet Dead Town Radio, but all I really need to know is that they remind me of three of my all-time favorite British bands: The Railway Children, New Order, and The Cure. The band’s debut single, Hey, was released two weeks ago and is a beautiful crystallization of everything that was right with music in the mid 1980s.

Dominic Otero’s vocals never sound forced as he wraps his notes over Alex Sagba-Brady’s post-punk drumming and Ben Taylor’s bouncy bass lines, but my favorite element of the band’s sound by far is Gavin Bilbe’s synthesizer playing. Those synths lend a nostalgic air to the band’s melodies, conjuring up thoughts of “In Between Days” and “Every Beat of the Heart.”

“Hey” begins with a slinky guitar riff and a rubber band of a bass groove before a killer, shimmering synth melody joins the party. Its verses are slick but my favorite moment in the song occurs at the end of each chorus; Otero sings “you take me this way,” and on the final word, the song skyrockets up to another plane with the hi-hats being furiously rat-a-tatted and those big synth pads breaking through the background. The band has engineered a vicious cycle with “Hey”: the more I listen to it, the more I want to listen to it again. Perhaps they are tapping into an emotional mainline for this ’80s child, but I wish more acts out there sounded like Dead Town Radio.