It is quite easy to pick up on the influence of late-era Beatles’ running through Feel The Light but then the ripples created as they dropped into the musical consciousness of the sixties are still undeniably being felt today, so why not. And as they say, if you are going to steal, steal from the best. Though stealing is perhaps too strong a word for waht is going on here, every musician is in some way inspired by what has come before, it is that The Parlophonics are perhaps just more honest about such things.
But, there is more here that is new and intriguing than established and pre-owned, more that is fresh than is familiar and because of that, the song stands easily on its own two feet. It’s pop, sure, power-pop perhaps but it is pop that is heightened, deepened, stretched into extra sonic dimensions, dripping with psychedelic gorgeous and paisley patterned beauty, it is cinematic, wide-screen, ambient, understated and awesome. I was trying to hold back a bit there but the song got the better of me, as all the best songs always do, so there, that is the song in all its glory turned into words.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the band lies away from the music that they make and more to do with the fact that the three members of The Parlophonics have never actually been in the same room as each other! The story is a familiar one in the current age, an album which was created by long-distance contribution and the ability to file-share that modern technology allows.
Robert Horvath was inspired by the separation and seclusion that covid ushered in to record and release some of the songs that he had been writing and working on his entire life. To this end, he brought in Fernando Perdomo and Hugh Macdonald as collaborators and bandmates and the three musicians developed an obvious, long-distance chemistry that touches everything that they play, a feeling and an attitude that often even eludes bands who have played together for years.
And the result was a full album of stand out songs titled A Day In The Life, the title track itself offering no small nod of appreciation to the fab four and it is from this debut that Feel The Light is taken.
Gorgeously crafted, nostalgia-tinged, psychedelic-infused power pop of the highest order. What’s not to love?
