Optic – A Weird Situation

Synth pop with soul: Optic's “A Weird Situation” sheds light on the fall of humanity

Sometimes a song man­ages not only to touch me music­ally, but also to make me think – and that's exactly what Optic achieve with their new track “A Weird Situation”. The Swedish synth-pop band, who already wowed me a year ago with “Bad Times”, remain true to their style and once again deliv­er a mel­an­choly anthem that impresses both ton­ally and lyrically.

What strikes me imme­di­ately is the mas­ter­ful com­bin­a­tion of nos­tal­gic ana­log syn­thes­izers and eleg­ant melod­ies. The song feels like a trib­ute to the big names of the genre – fans of Depeche Mode, Elegant Machinery or Kiethevez will undoubtedly dis­cov­er par­al­lels here. But Optic man­age to bring their own char­ac­ter to the table: the pulsat­ing synth arpeg­gios and the gentle vocals of Marc von Melen give the track a dis­tinct­ive touch. I was par­tic­u­larly fas­cin­ated by the ton­al breaks and mood changes – they give the song a dynam­ic depth that elev­ates it far above the ordinary.

The lyr­ics also made a last­ing impres­sion on me. The dysto­pi­an vis­ion of a future in which machines replace our human­ity is not only pro­found, but also fright­en­ingly top­ic­al. I doubt wheth­er it will take anoth­er ten thou­sand years. Lines like “Save me now from this unre­lent­ing insan­ity” and “To reshape and work hard for our rights to play God” per­fectly reflect the mel­an­choly mood of the song for me and encour­age us to reflect on our rela­tion­ship with technology.

Listen to "Optic – A Weird Situation" on Spotify

Official music video of "Optic – A Weird Situation"

Lyrics of "Optic – A Weird Situation"

Here I am
Ten thou­sand years from now
Restrained in curi­ous times
Greet a man who lost his soul, somehow
To cal­ib­rated minds
We made them teach us
What to think and how to feel
We let them reach us
Tell us all what to believe (what to believe)

Save me now from this unre­lent­ing insanity
(a man-made creation)
Show me how to defy the fall of humanity
(a weird situation)

Here you are
My per­fect Nemesis
A human­ized machine
How bizarre and deeply sad it is
To real­ize you’re not a dream
Inside the darkness
I can sense that tick­ing sound
Unmoved and heartless
You will slowly tear me down (will tear me down)

We called and you came
To improve and make a change
To reshape and work hard
For our rights to play God
You served and obeyed
Every wish that we made
Then it all fell down