Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio we’ve been listening to Daylight On The Run, the latest single from Colorado’s Benton Crane.
Daylight On The Run is a song about transforming a long night into an opportunity for creative expression. Benton is a true advocate for mental health and understands the importance of tuning out and taking time for yourself to escape from the chaos and heaviness of life. In his songs, he aims to bring relief to anyone who is struggling.
We think Benton has nailed that relief with Daylight On The Run. This is a wonderful chillout soundscape that washes over you with a slightly psychedelic/art rock mellowness. This is a song that we feel would work well in the closing scene to a movie.
Starting on synths/pads, an acoustic strummed guitar joins the track. When the vocals come in they are layered and have a lovely Pink Floyd-like echo on them. There’s some definite Roger Waters influence throughout this song and it had us all slow-nodding in appreciation. The title of the song, the artwork for the track, and even the promo photos, all lead you towards thinking of a retro feel: Pink Floyd or Yes. You instantly know that this is going to be a wonderful pro-rock journey before you even click play. It displays a well-considered level of awareness from the artist of the image he is trying to portray.
There is some superb use of space in this track: the distant ride on the right in your ears, and some superb separation between instruments. Nothing is battling to be heard and every track has its own space.
We love the incidental keys between the vocals and the way that the drums have an almost pulling feel to them, constantly driving the song forward.
There is a beautiful heartbeat-like section in the middle of the track where the song breaks down to just kick drum and the full band is brought back in with some triumphant bright toms.
Ideas from our ears
A small dip around 700Hz -1kHz would reduce some slightly ‘honky’ or ‘nasal’ tones. Definitely a tiny adjustment if at all. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears. This is a beautiful track: a masterpiece in soundscape production.
Final thoughts
One of our favourites this week, Benton Crane’s, Daylight On The Run is a stunning soundscape for fans of late 60s/early 70s classic-sounding art rock. Just wonderful!