XOR – Waiting

"XOR" delves into the world of synth pop with "Waiting" and presents a song that is infused with a refresh­ing energy at its core. In this track, nos­tal­gic sounds of the 80s merge with a mod­ern elec­tro pop vibe, cre­at­ing a play­ful yet naive atmo­sphere. The use of small, play­ful samples remin­is­cent of "Depeche Mode" in 1983 gives "Waiting" a spe­cial fla­vour and sets the song apart from oth­er cur­rent synth pop productions.

However, it is import­ant to emphas­ise that "Waiting" is not simply a throw­back to times gone by. "XOR" man­ages to fuse these nos­tal­gic ele­ments with mod­ern sounds to cre­ate a hybrid that appeals to both fans of clas­sic synth pop and fans of con­tem­por­ary elec­tron­ic music. The com­par­is­on with the sound of "Veil Of Light" is suit­able and emphas­ises the bridge between past and present that is built in "Waiting".

As we all know, art is debat­able. While the music­al com­pos­i­tion and the sound of the song are hon­our­able, there are points of cri­ti­cism from me, espe­cially when it comes to the art­work. It seems as if the visu­al ele­ment can't quite keep up with the qual­ity and atmo­sphere of the music, to put it dip­lo­mat­ic­ally. Too bad!

This song is part of our Spotify playl­ist ‘New Synth Pop Songs 2024‘. The playl­ist is updated con­tinu­ously. Follow this playl­ist now and don’t miss any of the latest synth pop hits in 2024.

Listen to "XOR – Waiting" on Spotify

Listen to "XOR – Waiting" on Bandcamp

Official music video of "XOR – Waiting"

Lyrics of "XOR – Waiting"

I wake in the morn­ing feel­ing empty.
All I want is to have you here. All I want is to have you here
And I hope these words find you well.
I’ll be here sit­ting by myself.

Mementos and your let­ters sur­round me.
All I want is to hear your voice. All I want is to hold you
In my arms. I’d wait 1000 years
Counting days til I’m back home with you.

Waiting to be with you.
Waiting to be with you.
And I hope that you feel the way I do.
Waiting is the hard­est part.
It just tears me down and breaks my heart
Til I come back and we can share the whole day through.

Weeks apart and time feels like an ocean.
An empty void stretched out between has got me split­ting and the seems
And I can’t reach out to find you close.
The nights are when it hurts the most.

Waiting to be with you.
Waiting to be with you.
And I hope that you feel the way I do.
Waiting is the hard­est part.
It just tears me down and breaks my heart
Til I come back and we can share the whole day through.

XOR about "Waiting"

XOR presents their latest syn­thpop single "Waiting", a love song about being away from home. For the music video, Matthew–the song­writer behind XOR–tried his hand at stop-motion anim­a­tion using clay and con­struc­tion paper to match the vibe of the song.

Matthew wrote the song for his part­ner while on tour with his post-punk band, Secret Shame: "We’d gone from being around each oth­er non-stop dur­ing lock­down to me being away on tour a large part of the year. It’s hard to nav­ig­ate being on the road so much and hav­ing a life at home. No mat­ter how often we call or text, it just isn’t the same as being around someone and shar­ing a life with them."

The concept of the video came from the sound of the song. "Something about the synth leads just soun­ded like clay digest­ing itself," says Matthew. There wasn't an under­ly­ing concept or dir­ec­tion for the video oth­er than that. Instead, XOR developed scenes based on how the mater­i­als behaved.

"Waiting" is upbeat, yet mel­an­choly, dreamy yet dancy. While Juno synths are remin­is­cent of a clas­sic 80s sound, the energy and pro­duc­tion make it a mod­ern dance­floor bop.