The first thing you might notice about “Another Holiday,” standout on I Come To Shanghai’s newest installment in their Eternal Life mini album series, is the track sounds like it’s ending in its opening seconds. Some decaying vocals from the previous track (“Empty Eyes”) are caught in an elliptical reverberating loop and we’re moving into a basso drone pierced with the squishy ring of some analog synth keys like the track is about to embark on a lengthy, whimsical Gong-esque space rock expedition. Instead, the drone is wiped away by the passing of an eighteen wheeler and we’re suddenly submerged beneath a few soggy layers of serotonin-soaked synths and glistening, care-free wind-in-your-hair vocal harmonies like some modern dream pop take on orchestra-fueled ’60s psych pop. Outside its full record context, the track is kind of a whirlwind. On the full LP, the following track, the forty-two second “You’re My Favorite Drug,” is an almost confrontational change of pace, moving into some chimey, gleefully cheesy ’80s electro. Yet somehow it exists within the same fully realized atmosphere of the previous song.
On “Another Holiday,” the duo walk a tricky tightrope between understated, razor sharp songwriting, bombastic hooks, and almost aggressively purposeful arrangement. In the midst of the track’s nebula-colored synth melodies a pervasive and hungry melodic slide guitar washes over the track like cascading tendrils of neon-colored rain. The singalong chorus, especially the joyously assailing backing vocal of “I doubt it!” provide an infectious, impactful center to the otherwise dizzying array. When it arrives for the second time after a bridge and a chord change, accompanied by some breakneck drum fills, its nearly turned into a crescendo. Near the end of the track as the drums kick into a motorik double-time, the synths start to convincingly make up for the fact I Come To Shanghai don’t have a colossal, brass-booming orchestra at their disposal. Though they make the synthetic version work so well for their introverted ambient pop atmosphere, they might be better off without one. These guys are in the midst of tunneling down a very singular and weird rabbit hole and it’s more than worth checking out.
