Nichols+Roark- City Lights

Pop instead of pathos: Why ‘City Lights’ still doesn't leave me cold

The song ‘City Lights’ kicks off with a series of pat­ter­ing sounds that imme­di­ately piqued my curi­os­ity. It sounds excit­ing, it sounds new, and by the time the beat and vocals kick in, it's clear to me: this is elec­tro pop meets a very pop-ori­ented inter­pret­a­tion of Ladytron – but without their 70s retro organs. That sur­prised me, but it was also a pleas­ant surprise.

The sound is rich, full and – I say this delib­er­ately – juicy. In terms of pro­duc­tion, I have noth­ing to com­plain about. Everything sounds coher­ent, well-roun­ded and craf­ted with great atten­tion to detail. But although I'm taken by the sound aes­thet­ic, I per­son­ally miss the dark­ness that I often look for in this genre. For me, ‘City Lights’ remains on the light­er side of elec­tro pop – dance­able but not threat­en­ing, clear but not dark.

Lyrically, there is a del­ic­ate mel­an­choly that I find excit­ing. "A place where a dream is your real­ity" – there's some­thing com­fort­ing about that. The lyr­ics speak of pain and loss, but also of the pos­sib­il­ity of find­ing a spark of com­fort amid the urb­an flood of lights. I can sense the inten­tion, even if it doesn't dive deep enough into the emo­tion­al for my taste.

The bot­tom line is that ‘City Lights’ remains a styl­ish, high-qual­ity elec­tro pop track that will appeal above all to fans of clear melod­ies and well-craf­ted pro­duc­tions. Those look­ing for dark edges won't find them here – but any­one who wants to spend the night with their ears open should give it a listen.

Listen to "Nichols+Roark- City Lights" on Spotify

Lyrics of "Nichols+Roark- City Lights"

Time and time again
The days can seem a chore

We listen to our souls

We reach for some­thing more

A high­er place
Another world

A place where a dream is your reality

A place where
A place where

A place where I found you

Will any­body know
Will any­body care
The hurt, the pain

All washed away
In the city lights

In the city lights

Another day arrives
Like many more that we have known

Beauty here is far way

Beyond where we’ve been shown

A high­er place
Another world
A place where a dream is your reality
A place where
A place where I find you