Sarantos – Above The Clouds “happy, hopefully & joy inducing”
This is definitely one of Sarantos’ strongest recordings so far. The optimism and positivity is very important right now and is also undeniably true to everything that Sarantos stands for. His creative drive is never ending and to fuse that with an awareness within the world and an unwillingness to ignore difficulty makes for something quite beautiful. The recording in this case lets listeners hear the gentle intricacies of Sarantos’ voice. It also allows those lyrics to really settle in as the positive poetry that they are.
The sound of the track has an Eels’ like presentation to it that adds to the warmth and the inclusivity. It’s a togetherness song, a song about hope, about looking forwards when things are difficult instead of back. The instrumentation is simple but effective as it lets the lyrics and the melody really shine brightly. The recording is crisp and warm and again one of the strongest musically that I’ve heard so far from the songwriter and artist. The backing vocals add a beautiful extra layer that increases the depth of the overall sound and keeps that warmth and that feeling of everyone being in this together at the forefront of your mind as you listen.
In terms of the humanness of the song and the intimacy of the vocal performance and the music, the accompanying video was a perfect choice for re-emphasising all of this. The video touches on the performances and adds to the genuine, caring nature of the whole thing. The alternate shots of someone struggling keep that awareness present, and the literal shots of flying above the clouds increase the family friendly energy of the piece and make for a happy, hopefully joy inducing audio and visual experience. Always a great songwriter with a lot to offer.
By Rebecca Cullen
Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing
