There are cinematic anthems and there are cinematic anthems. Fernando Honorato, the singer and co-founder of Stockholm post-punk band Principe Valiente and the guy behind the solo project that is Fernando’s Eyes probably wrote the manual.
That’s the conclusion we were forced to come to after listening to a previous single, ‘A million times’ in March last year, rapidly attaching the label ‘dark pop’ to it and sensing a taste of Ultravox in the production.
Now he’s working on his second solo album (we don’t use lah-di-dah words like ‘sophomore’ here and I’m glad to note that Fernando doesn’t either) and has released a new single which I guess will end up on it.
‘Room on fire’ is his first new material from the solo project since last year’s ‘Centre of your world’.
It’s a song about leaving without looking back (well I’m sure you wouldn’t hang about if the place was ablaze), not as an act of loss but as a deliberate choice. Don’t look back in anger as a Mancunian bloke once sang. So it’s all about moving forwards and compartmentalising the past in a small cupboard in your brain, where you can interrogate it from time to time only if the will to do so is upon you.
‘No more’ is the overwhelming theme, those words appearing together no less than 13 times in the lyrics. I reckon his mind is made up, don’t you?
“No more hands
no more plans
no more tears to dry
no more to justify
no more…”
There’s no more left to say.
Hence it’s a direct, unrelenting song, epitomised by an unremitting bass line that lasts almost from the very first note to the last apart from a short and unexpected early bridge during which the time signature appears to collapse like it’s gone into a Black Hole, and the insertion of a smart piece of live and recorded percussion from co-producer and mixer Hans Olsson.
You know I do like a bit of sax on the floor (you read that right) and there are two thrilling insertions by jazz musician Lina Langendorf that are every bit as rewarding as a solo. I think ‘bruscamente’ might be the technical term for them but I’m no expert on musical terminology.
I had to smile at the video. The band is filmed in such a way with the backlighting that some of them – especially the drummer – look like the aliens exiting the spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I hoped to hear the five tones but in their absence I’ll relegate François Truffaut and nominate Fernando’s Eyes as the Earth’s representative any day.
Find him/them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fernandoseyes.music
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Music video by: Future Legends Films / Damón Zurawski
