“Smoke + Lightning” (Fast Romantics song)

Fast Romantics, photo courtesy the artist

Fast Romantics tap into the logic of dreams for its single “Smoke + Lightning.” Kirty’s ethereal vocals relay imagery and ideas that bring together words from something you might dream and half-remembered ideas upon waking but makes it work with the rush of bright melodies and the exuberant sounds of the song. It’s an entrancing reconciliation of experiences that seem impossible to know at once like mystical concepts placed in a pop song such as the transcendence of death and immortality, living parallel existences at once and the image of “dreaming in smoke + lightning.” The contrasts of conceptualization Fast Romantics make work in the context of a song that is uplifting and bright but about headier concepts that might seem dark and bizarre when presented another way. It lends the song an unexpected depth that invites multiple interpretations in the re-listening. Watch the video for “Smoke + Lightning” on YouTube and follow the Canadian band Fast Romantics at the links provided. Fast Romantics’ new album Happiness + Euphoria dropped September 29, 2023 via Postwar Records.