We’re always happy to see the music of Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends come to the top of the reviews pile here at Send Me Your Ears. Not least because of the cool band name, but also because they are producing some real quality unique music that we just love to listen to!
Their latest single, By Your Bed, is a positively anthemic and heartfelt song about sitting by the bedside of a dying loved one. This is a marked change from the previous single of theirs that we reviewed. Firebird was much more of a country rock track. By Your Bed shows the versatility of this diverse Swedish act and this track made us fall in love a little more with their music.
By Your Bed comes straight in with vocals and guitar. It feels almost a little musical theatre at the start. It’s so different from their previously reviewed track that we thought we can’t possibly be reviewing a song by another band with the same name of “Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends”! The quality and diversity here is just wonderful.
There’s a lovely subtle shaker that adds to the mix and the gorgeous, Dire Straits style, gentle guitar incidentals are a thrilling and classy addition.
Some delightful harmonies in places, together with some hammond work fill out the sound nicely in the choruses. There’s also some Strawberry Fields style flute (mellotron?) that sits beautifully.
There are places in the choruses that the swell and energy reminded us of Supertramp and the unpredictable (not just the predictable “one tone up” key change) was well placed and added considerable drama to the song.
The gentle parts of the song are world class. The balance of vocals and incidentals is extremely pleasant to listen to.
The choruses really do soar, but we felt that at this point the vocals get a little lost in the mix. Perhaps some compression, extra volume, and possibly some more top end would help them sit more clearly in the mix. Other than this one small adjustment, we really do feel that this track is absolutely stunning and one that we will be listening to on repeat for quite some time to come.
By Your Bed is a heartfelt, emotionally soaring work of art that combines great story telling, together with superb musicianship, together with some really classy scoring. Our favourite track of the day!