If there is an EP that better sums up the creative scope and genre-hopping nature of song-crafting in today’s music scene than this, then I am yet to stumble across it.
Most people would be more than happy to have created a record with such grace and beauty, such cinematic elegance and infectious artistry, that in itself would be triumph enough. But, as fantastic as the songs found here are, and even fantastic seems like a world that doesn’t come close to doing the music justice, it is when you look closer, get under the skin of the music, delve into its sonic structures and examine the component parts, that you are truly blown away.
That Robbie Vonn can, not only blend glitchy electronica with smooth and sweeping strings, analogue expressions with digital dreamscapes, futuristic flights of fantasy with timeless, primal beauty, the grace of the classical world with the infectiousness of the dream-pop landscape but do so effortlessly, is the real charm of Hopeless Memories.
And you have all that to marvel at before you even begin to talk about how Juliet Lyons’ vocals transform this EP from a mere collection of songs, great as they are, and into otherworldly serenades, by draping and dressing them with such delicacy, such eloquence and elegance, such humanity, particularly when she has industrial sonic machinations as her backdrop.
At a time when Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters and TV series are all the rage, Hopeless Memories sounds like a soundtrack looking for a filmic outlet. Warmer than Vangelis, less bombastic than Williams, more human than Zimmer, perhaps in the future composers will write the soundtracks and film-makers will use that as the springboard from which to create the corresponding visual story. Wouldn’t that be great? And when that day comes, there will be a bidding war for Robbie Vonn and his amazing music like nothing that you have seen before.
