Emmon – Shades Of Blue

Emmon captures the cold beauty of the early 80s

Emmons Shades Of Blue hits me right where I'm weak for that cool indus­tri­al synth sound you could hear in the early 80s. The atmo­sphere imme­di­ately reminds me of Depeche Mode—more spe­cific­ally, their “A Broken Frame”, “Construction Time Again”, and “Some Great Reward” phases. This era of ana­log, slightly brittle sounds, with its metal­lic sequences and dark har­mon­ies—that's exactly what Emmon revives here. It feels like an homage, almost like a declar­a­tion of love.

The song unfolds with a con­trolled emo­tion­al­ity, nev­er sen­ti­ment­al, but deep, like a machine that is sud­denly allowed to show its heart. When she sings "I can see dark­ness around you / I can see all the shades of blue" in the lyr­ics, I think of this image of inner heav­i­ness and light at the same time – of shad­ows and reflec­tion, but also of the pos­sib­il­ity of break­ing through.

She hits that rare spot between nos­tal­gia and inde­pend­ence. "Shades Of Blue" imme­di­ately makes my heart beat faster – a song that takes me back to the 80s without sound­ing old. Incidentally, there are more songs in this vein on the album “Icon”. So it's an insider tip for all Depeche Mode fans. And for me it's the best Emmon album ever!! Congrats.

The accom­pa­ny­ing music video by EMMON togeth­er with pho­to­graph­er Daniel Kwon also deserves a pos­it­ive men­tion here. It has the typ­ic­al aes­thet­ic of Anton Corbijn's first music videos from the “Music For The Masses” era. I love it!

Listen to "Emmon – Shades Of Blue" on Spotify

Listen to "Emmon – Shades Of Blue" on Bandcamp

Lyrics of "Emmon – Shades Of Blue"

Take my hand, I'll catch you when you fall
Into these eyes, just for a while.

Hear my voice, I’ll guide you through it all
Into these eyes, just for a while

I can see shad­ows upon you.
I can see light shin­ing through.
I can see dark­ness around you
I can see all the shades of blue

Follow me, you’re drift­ing far away
Into these eyes, just for a while

Trust these words, you’re lost without a trace
Into these eyes, just for a while

I can see shad­ows upon you.
I can see light shin­ing through.
I can see dark­ness around you
I can see all the shades of blue