Jamey See Tai, under the moniker of See Tai, has just released his latest single, Fun Now and we’ve been taking several listens here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today. Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, this talented singer songwriter sounds more like an early 80s star than an artist from the Southern States of America.
Fun Now is a light hearted and enjoyable song which speaks of the highs and lows of living the party life. Fun Now has a really early 80s feel in the vein of Johnny Hates Jazz or the Pet Shop Boys.
We love how the song starts with a filtered low pass on the overall master which subtly slides off, giving much more impact to the track once it’s in full swing.
The lo-fi Heaven 17 style drums add to the authenticity of that early 80s feel and, of course, that all important 80s style16 beat percussion comes and goes throughout the track to add definition and extra interest in parts of the chorus. The shaker is beautifully stereo.
The guitars in this track are dreamy and the pad instruments come and go and help maintain interest. There are lots of different sections to Fun Now, but at no point are you left guessing where you are in the track.
The break down at around 3 minutes is handled well, with a great build on the kick drum which leads back into the full song again. The rise and fall that has been achieved throughout this song is superbly done.
Special interest goes to just the very occasional single word picked out for a moment of stereo delay – all adding to an authentic and fun retro sound.
From a scoring point of view, this is an excellent track. Great definition between sections and changes in instrumentation to ensure the listener is invested. Perhaps, at over 4 minutes, a little too long for those super-picky commercial stations, but we can see this track performing well on college radio across the US and retro style internet stations.
From a production perspective this is superb. It’s not often that we’ve no suggestions for improvement in the production, but See Tai has it bang on here. The mix is superb, everything is clear, the balance is superb and this track is a thoroughly pleasant listen.
See Tai’s new single, Fun Now, is a joyous step into a retro era that we’d all truly love to hear more of. See Tai has captured our hearts with this track and we’re excited to hear what’s next.