Eight Two – “Motivation”
If Eight Two’s latest effort was edible, it would be the most popular hallucinogen on the market. The song’s thumping, three-dimensional, experimental indie sonics, renders it a drastic, and appealing departure from the thrillingly unlistenable mainstream pop we’re accustomed to. Simply put, “Motivation” is one hell of a trip. Of course, listening the previous album release, “Exhibition”, it’s clear that the Santa Fe by way of Brooklyn project, has always been an interestingly unique and perplexing force.
Always ambitious and inventive, Eight Two never repeat themselves and continually refuse to care what anybody think. Still, no matter how amazing or confusing any of the group’s back catalog may be, it establishes a decisive break from the well-treaded pop roads. This much is obvious, and “Motivation” is the culmination of everything that came before it.
Once again Eight Two do not compromise their gorgeously catchy melodies or beautiful harmonies, something that they have always brought to the table. Stunning, hummable melodies harmonize with one another and mesh into layer upon layer of vast jangly sounds and a bouncy summertime beat. The song-craft alone is awe-inspiring enough to make many would-be songwriters simply give up altogether.
It might be only two months into the year, but I would be hard pressed to find a better multi-genre track in 2020 than “Motivation”. A track that begins with haunting looped bass but slowly unveils itself as a colorful pop song, equipped with unforgettable vocal melodies and a hair raising, eye widening pounding drumbeat. From its first few seconds, the track immediately launches into an ultra-sunny trip through sub aquatic, organic, and electro infused indie-pop soundscape.
“Motivation” is an astonishing, charming and clever song that you have to hear to believe. Eight Two have mapped out some previously uncharted waters, producing a style of music that could belong to no one else; a distinctive, flawless fusion of the electronic and the wholly organic.
Even by their own exuberant standards, “Motivation” is a dizzying groove that makes most music, indie rock or otherwise, sound pathetically timid. Eight Two have tapped into something else, something new and something better, and “Motivation” is the deafening sound of that something.
Sixty seconds in, and “Motivation” becomes certifiably amazing, and remains so until the very end. Everything just blows up in a way it seems scarcely possible a studio could ever capture. There are thumping drums, guitars spiraling with rhythmic abandon; there’s shimmering high and bright sonics; there is some awesome bass; and there’s the over-cute vocal affectations.
There’s an absurd amount going on here, much of it incredibly energetic, and Eight Two pull it off immaculately, in a perfectly vivid snapshot of unbridled joy. And it goes on, wave after ecstatic wave until finally wrapping up.
