X‑Marks The Pedwalk – Secrets

X-Marks The Pedwalk - Secrets

Album facts

Release: March 24th, 2017
Label: Meshwork Music
Genre: , ,
Discogs: Link

A masterpiece from the start

A mas­ter­piece as an open­er! At least the open­er is called 'Masterpiece'. This was maybe the secret motive of 'X‑Marks The Pedwalk' as they pro­duced their ninth stu­dio album 'Secrets'. The open­er has an awe­some and almost Futurepop-esque bass beat. With a catchy tune and the heav­enly voice of Estefania it's a grand opening.

Great role models as calculus

In gen­er­al, I have to admit that this is the most catchy stu­dio album of 'X‑Marks The Pedwalk' I've ever heard. Perhaps the 'Violator' (Depeche Mode album, 1990) is the album's coun­ter­part. At least the album has cer­tain par­al­lels. Even on the 'Secrets' are only 9 songs and the art­work presents itself sim­il­arly flor­al min­im­al­ist. Furthermore, it comes with the same pop atti­tude. But all this is just pure spec­u­la­tion. Maybe it's just coincidence.

The title track 'Secrets' is a great Synth Pop track that sounds almost radio-friendly. A driv­ing beat and a chor­us sung in a duet, lets you eas­ily dive into the latest 'X‑Marks The Pedwalk' out­put. With this for­mula, the song has a huge club hit poten­tial.

Dark tinted influences

'Ghost' fol­lows the son­ic­ally DNA of the title song. This num­ber also has a very well-engin­eered sound and here we're more in the elec­tron­ic pop sec­tor. The mel­an­chol­ic lyr­ics are adeptly packed in the pop sound, just as you usu­ally know from the 'Pet Shop Boys'. In this case the only, but big dif­fer­ence to the 'Pet Shop Boys' is that 'X‑Marks The Pedwalk' sounds some­what bleak and more seriously.

Dream and dance

X Marks The Pedwalk Press Photo 2017
X‑Marks The Pedwalk
(Press Photo 2017)

The fourth song 'Sacred' switches down a gear and presents itself in the mid-tempo range. The song hov­ers on a unique and futur­ist­ic, sound­ing sphere. It's a typ­ic­al sound in which you get lose in thoughts and drift­ing away. This is the 'dream sequence' on 'Secrets'.

The ener­get­ic song 'Photomatique' awakens the listen­er imme­di­ately. A great beat for the dance floor with an awe­some dynam­ic­al song struc­ture. As in the Opener, we also hear typ­ic­al Future Pop ele­ments from this number.

A twist in the story

The bal­lad 'Breathe' is in prin­ciple not a bad song, but also not out­stand­ing. Far bet­ter is the fol­low­ing track with the title 'Prisoner'. This song staged itself extremely dreamy and is accom­pan­ied by a won­der­ful 80s feel­ing. In places, reminds us of the song of the clas­sic 'Maid of Orleans' by 'OMD', but still sounds independent.

We really enjoyed listen to 'One Time'. Here the listen­er is offered a clas­sic Synth Pop track. The struc­ture is very multi-layered without being too com­plex. Unfortunately the last song 'Crankmachine' is a instru­ment­al track that drags the over­all-score a bit down.

The result isn't a secret

'X‑Marks The Pedwalk' haven't bloated the album unne­ces­sar­ily. The secret of suc­cess lies in the brev­ity. Regarding the album 'Secrets' it has become a great and com­pact work. The album art­work is also pos­it­ive to men­tion. This is graph­ic­ally designed down to the smal­lest detail and comes in an eleg­ant 6‑page digi­pak. We hereby issue an abso­lute pur­chase recommendation.

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2017‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating

X Marks The Pedwalk Secrets
X‑Marks The Pedwalk – Secrets
Masterpiece
Secrets
Ghost
Sacred
Photomatique
Breathe
Prisoner
One Time
Crankmachine
Recommend
Masterpiece
Secrets
Photomatique
Weak
Crankmachine
3.9
Gorgeous

Watch the album trailer here:

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Masterpiece
Secrets
Ghost
Sacred
Photomatique
Breathe
Prisoner
One Time
Crankmachine
Final Score