Blood Orange is growing on me more every day, and they recently released a new album called Essex Honey. The album is full of fantastic tracks like “The Field” and “Mind Loaded.” This text will focus on the song “Vivid Light.” It was hard to pick just one song when there are so many good ones to choose from, but this is where I landed.

Essex Honey is definitely the kind of album where you stumble onto one song and immediately feel compelled to save the whole thing. “Vivid Light” is a track that makes time slow down—at least for me. It puts me in a perfect zone to be productive, relax, or simply sit still and enjoy some good music.

For me, the main focus in “Vivid Light” is the drums. They’re so unbelievably well-mixed and snappy, yet at the same time incredibly relaxed, that it’s impossible not to notice them. I’m a musician, and I started out playing drums, so great grooves always capture my full attention. The other elements that stand out are the soaring vocals and the synths. I feel like there’s a lot of space between the low end and the high end in this song. Sometimes that kind of space can make a track feel empty, but not in “Vivid Light”—here, everything sits just right in the mix.

If you’ve started listening to this song and haven’t reached the outro yet, I won’t spoil anything. It’s a surprise—a relaxed and hypnotizing track suddenly finishes with a complete shift in dynamics. It’s a bold switch-up, but I love it.

I’ll end by saying this song feels very organic. My guess is that it was created by someone with a genuine love for their craft. “Vivid Light” just emanates love. Go 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!