Blackbook – Stay Strange

‘Stay Strange’: Synthpop emotionality with 80s drama

The song ‘Stay Strange’ by Blackbook feels to me like a mel­an­chol­ic response to their own club hit ‘You Are Strange’. I guess that was the duo's ini­tial task. While the lat­ter was a clear dance­floor hit, the band trans­forms the same spir­it into a bal­lad that is clichédly ori­ented towards the 80s – and that's exactly what fas­cin­ated me immediately.

I like the way Blackbook trans­ferred the mood of the out­siders and weirdos into the lyr­ics. Lines like "They only hate us, cuz they don't have what we have" speak to my heart because they express the feel­ing of solid­ar­ity and oth­er­ness that is so cru­cial in this scene. Musically, Blackbook relies on dense synth lay­ers that gently envel­op the vocals without ever becom­ing intrus­ive. The song­writ­ing remains con­sist­ently emo­tion­al, yet it has that slightly the­at­ric­al 80s bal­lad char­ac­ter that I find exciting.

To be hon­est, the oblig­at­ory sax­o­phone bridge is my per­son­al weak point. The sax­o­phone is my least favour­ite instru­ment, which is pre­cisely why I can't give the song full marks. But des­pite this lim­it­a­tion, ‘Stay Strange’ still scores a very strong 4.5 stars from me.

Listen to "Blackbook – Stay Strange" on Spotify

Listen to "Blackbook – Stay Strange" on Bandcamp

Lyrics of "Blackbook – Stay Strange"

Lost
On the side of the road
Where I found you
Abandoned, alone
I recog­nized myself
in the dark­ness of your mind
And together
We went for a ride

Stay strange forever
Stay strange forever

Until the end

Days
I'll nev­er forget
When our vengeance
Rained over the land
They only hate us
Cuz they don't have what we have
Remember
But nev­er regret

Stay strange forever
Promise me to
Stay strange forever
And ever and ever

Stay strange forever
Stay strange forever
And ever and ever
Stay strange forever
Stay strange forever
And ever and ever
My friend

Until the end
Until the end