Purveyors of synthpop Magnetic Skies have returned in 2023 with new single ‘You Shine On’. Their most euphoric single to date, ‘You Shine On’ lights the blue touchpaper of the four-piece’s album release year with a dreamlike, poignant track that carries with it a compelling love story.
While the song’s introduction immediately hints at its overall mood of rapturous joy with keyboardist Jo Womar’s plaintive calls of “Heaven in your eyes”, the Simon Kent-led verses reveal that ‘You Shine On’ is no straightforward love song. Lenin Alegria and Carlos Aguilar, members brought into the band in 2021 to great effect, provide motoring drums and winding, anxious guitar lines respectively. This all dovetails with Kent’s impassioned vocals that bely outside interference in the story’s romance: “There’s emptiness inside the laughter in their smiles / They’re pushing the love away / But you are all I want to see”.
Just as quickly as this uneasy mood has been set, Magnetic Skies fall head over heels into the comforting power of love in the chorus. Aguilar’s guitar melodies turn from pensive to ebullient, Womar returns with bright, textured synth chords, and Kent proclaims “I’m in heaven when you shine on”, a truly anthemic refrain that paints in sound the euphoria the words contain.
The Scott Chalmers-shot music video is a perfect accompaniment to the track. Featuring the band members alongside burlesque performer and long term collaborator Miss Avant Garde, the video leans heavily into the heavenly imagery of the track’s lyrics. The band play through a kaleidoscopic affect that evokes angelic imagery, while Kent delivers the chorus with arms outstretched in a messianic stance, driving home the divine qualities of love the song describes.
With ‘You Shine On’, Magnetic Skies keep listeners on their toes. The band travel through every possible emotion in the process of telling a rollercoaster love story, all the while soundtracked by a masterclass in synthpop that harks back to the best of the genre – Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, New Order – while remaining truly unique.
An overall euphoric listen, this single is a fantastic way for Magnetic Skies to not only set their 2023 into motion, but to also build up to the release of their debut album, Empire Falling, slated for release within the year. The band sing of “heaven in your eyes”, but ‘You Shine On’ is most definitely heaven in our ears.
Words by David Harrold
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