My taste in music is a constantly evolving thing and recently I’ve been quite surprised by the tracks I like that only a short time ago I would have dismissed – probably even before actually listening to them. Leeds’ band Victors’ ‘Big City’ is a case in point.
Victors describe themselves as a pop/electronica band and this is certainly true, ‘Big City’ is an unashamed pop track but it has a slight edge of indie-pop which kinda grabbed my attention. The other thing is a slight dreaminess to the music, it’s not at all out dream pop thing but it has that in it.
Given that Victors are a synth based band you might be expecting layer upon layer of sound but actually it’s quite simple in the arrangement, this is unexpected and rather lovely. What is right up front is the vocals and these are rather wonderful, it’s simply sung but there are some glorious harmonies in there.
The other thing is that on repeated listening and focusing in on the track, you find yes it’s a big synth based pop track but it’s full of space, it’s not sparse but it has a huge sense of space. It was that finally made me decide to do a review.
But when it comes down to it, the thing that makes this song work, that makes it good (if you will) is that this thing has a tune to die for, a tune that after you’ve listened to it only once it will sit there in your head. The other thing is that is while it starts off sounding all a bit – and I’m sure the band aren’t going to thank me for this – like a Take That track, it’s that it builds, layers of sound are added, drums come in. It has something quite epic to it.
And for those of you dismissing this as pop music, there’s nothing wrong with good pop music and this is great pop.
