Blossoms have teamed up with Declan McKenna for a new song called "Additional Driver". Apparently, the inspiration for this song came from Blossoms frontman Tom Ogden getting into a minor car accident outside the Manchester Apollo. I love the fact that somebody can experience something as boring as exchanging insurance details and somehow turn it into a five-minute indie disco song.

The track is incredibly playful. We get these big, bouncy synth sounds alongside bass, drums and guitars, and everything has this slightly retro feeling to it. It reminds me of that point where late 70s disco started slowly becoming 80s synth-pop. There is a lot going on, but nothing feels particularly heavy. The whole song basically skips along.

Declan McKenna is also a really good choice for this track. His voice has always had this slightly theatrical quality to it, and pairing that with Tom Ogden makes the whole thing sound even more mischievous. The two vocals feel like people telling you an increasingly ridiculous story at a party. Apparently some of the vocals were even recorded while they were sitting in a hot tub. If you understand how that somehow makes perfect sense after hearing the song, God bless you.

I especially like the synths here. They are very bright and almost cartoonish at times, but the bass and drums underneath everything keep the track grounded. It would have been extremely easy to make a song like this sound cheesy. Instead, it lands somewhere between silly and genuinely musical, which I think is quite difficult to pull off.

The song is surprisingly long as well, clocking in at over five minutes. Normally when I see a pop song reaching that length I start wondering whether everything really needs to be there. Here, however, the groove is strong enough that the track never feels particularly exhausting. It sort of floats by, which is something I really appreciate in music like this.

Doing some research, it seems this playful approach is becoming a major part of what Blossoms are doing with their upcoming album Songs From The Wedding Cake. They are taking ordinary situations and exaggerating them into these colourful pop songs. I think that is actually a really fun concept. There is something refreshing about music that does not constantly feel like it needs to discuss the meaning of life.

"Additional Driver" is not trying to reinvent music, but I really do not think it has to. Sometimes you just need great synths, a good groove and two people singing about a slightly embarrassing car accident. It is colourful, incredibly catchy and probably one of the more charming songs I have heard this week. Go and give it a spin!

Author: Peter Källman

Peter Källman is a writer from Sweden who loves playing in bands, writing reviews and going to live shows!