State Alchemist – Ash & Soil

When ash meets earth

What imme­di­ately reminds me of the very finest Swedish synth pop on first listen actu­ally comes, sur­pris­ingly, from the USA. State Alchemist sur­prise me here with beau­ti­ful, rich and won­der­fully undu­lat­ing bass­lines, car­ried by an incred­ibly catchy melody. It reminds me fondly of the sound of the duo ‘Red Cell’. Coupled with har­mo­ni­ous, emotive vocals, the track cap­tures exactly what I love about clas­sic­ally influ­enced synth pop.

The band them­selves describe the song as a story of attrac­tion told through the ele­ments, in which fire, water, ash and earth come togeth­er. When lines such as ‘Ash and soil when you meet me in the eye’ meet this smoul­der­ing sound, built on a subtle groove, I feel pre­cisely that music­al fric­tion born of enthu­si­asm and frus­tra­tion. In any case, I’m abso­lutely delighted to wel­come anoth­er such out­stand­ing track with a genu­ine touch of clas­sic synth pop into my ears.

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Lyrics of "State Alchemist – Ash & Soil"

I’ll make the words rhyme
And while you’re weav­ing me a dream
I know you’re teas­ing me with secrets I may nev­er know
Just like the first time
when I believed that I could see illu­min­a­tion, you snuffed it out

Someone said you do this all the time
On my lips and you’ll nev­er be mine
Ash and soil when you meet me in the eye
You soak me to the bone, you soak me to the bone

And when you held me
My burn­ing palms were empty-handed
And I van­ished like the rain behind a waterfall
When you release me,
Will you admit, then, you could see
that I was scream­ing the whole way down?

Weighed down, way down
Weighed down, and I suffer

Someone said you do this all the time
On my lips and you’ll nev­er be mine
Ash and soil when you meet me, eye-to-eye
You soak me to the bone, you soak me to the bone