Irish act, Ryders Blü have a new single out, As Long As I Got You Babe.
This is a positive sounding, bouncy, feel good track that grabs your attention right from the start.
Stylistically reminiscent of the late 80s, there were moments of Prefab Sprout and Wham thrown into the mix.
I like the catchy and repetitive title line that is repeated over and over towards the end. Its an easy song to get the hang of and before you know it you’re joining in and singing along. This really does have a down-at-the-roller-disco feel to it!!
As Long As I Got You Babe is pure escapism. So many artists are writing about deep and dark themes right now. Not Ryders Blü… this song just oozes summer fun.
Lovely swelling keyboards start the song before it powers straight in with the full band sound. I like that the vocals come in quickly. You are immediately in mind of how the song will develop.
There’s some lovely 80s feeling background vocals in places fill the sound as if they were instruments – in the same way that ABBA do so well. How do they manage to fit repeated “ba da ba da” in without it sounding cheesy? I don’t know but it works!
This really is a great song that I feel, with some production tweaks, could become absolutely fantastic. I bet these guys are utterly compelling in a live situation.
The main thing for me is that the production on the vocals lets the song down. The vocalist is clearly very talented and characterful but the production has made the lead vocal sound a little brittle and lacking in character. There’s a lot of unnecessary information in the very top end that I’d consider cutting, and in exchange, a wide boost in the high mids (on just the vocal track) will boost the vocals and give them some more definition.
On the overall track, I’d suggest a boost around 50-60Hz to give some oomph to the kick drum, and a little boost in the 100-150Hz range will even out the guitar a little.
Of course, these are just my own personal thoughts, and all in all this is a great fun track that the world needs to hear right now.
This song is super-catchy and I have no doubt it will stick in my head for a considerably long time. Great work.
We give this song four ears out of five
