A Thousand Thoughts Decline Away...

Song of the Day: November 4, 2011

The Chain Gang of 1974 - “Hold On’ from Wayward Fire

A month later after first discovering this in FIFA 12, and I’m still listening to this intrepid epic on loop everyday. I didn’t think I was a sucker for this kind of massive upbeat 80s sound that’s reminiscent of The Cure, The Human League, Depeche Mode and Duran Duran, but when you have an 8-minute jam that progresses from dark to light at the sudden drop of a beat and piles on the layers of sound, I guess you win me over no matter how “flamboyant” the song may be.

Anyway, this track is so great because that main bass line is some flat out groovy shit that keeps the various parts of the song cohesive and energetic. And of course the chorus is an excellent, massive anthem, with those contrasting low and falsetto vocals of Katmin Mohager (TCGO1974 is his solo project) blending together and melting into cries of “YEAAAAAAAH” topped off with that hella catchy keyboard melody. I still don’t know how that melody doesn’t get old, but The Chain Gang varies up the melody’s registers enough to keep it fresh throughout. And the outro is so damn cool that you don’t want it to end— no wonder why it goes on so dang long.

The video for this track is pretty fucking crazy. It’s either the best or worst video I’ve seen all year, with Mohager hunting down people whose faces are covered up by hair and freeing them from their blinded, hairy existence so that they can dance in the Forest like typical hipsters and probably gangbang each other or something. Whatever it is, I think its the best commercial Supercuts has done in years. I still suggest you check out the long form version of the song, since the minute long intro is a great buildup and the aforementioned outro is kickass. It’s like a progressive rock song turned into a dance epic and I dig that idea. In any case, at least the video is interesting enough to get you to watch the whole thing all the way through, so that you’ll check out the full song later.

Sucks that the rest of the songs on the album can’t match up to “Hold On.” On Wayward Fire, Mohager has a problem with editing down his tracks and he can’t get away with it like he can here. Plus he dips into the cliche 80s John Hughes soundtrack well too much and it gets old. Oh well, 8 minutes of awesomeness more than makes up for all of this and hopefully the next album he releases is more focused, cause it would suck if this dude stays a one hit wonder. At least he’s getting a lot of attention since I’m pretty sure most FIFA fans love this song.

So ya, if you dig those 80s bands I mentioned, or the electro-pop indie sound that alot of kids seem to dig these days (and which I have been digging alot lately, as seen in my previous post about The Naked and Famous), or the FIFA soundtrack, I think you’ll love this shit too.