Coming on strong with a fresh arrangement that keeps the listener’s ears standing to attention and poised to receive throughout, Without Your Love goes through a commanding raft of changes as it progresses.
We start with record crackle and then a mix of classic analogue-style synths (that could do well on a Stranger Things soundtrack) and heavily processed modern pads and phat lead sounds. These stand loud and proud in the mix with some real attention paid to building tension via tuned drum fills, phased keyboard sounds and pitch-shifted vocals.
Icicles of trickling reverb-drenched keys provide colour to sparse sections that shift the attention to the vocals – some tuned up, some tuned down and, gorgeously, in the original key. They sound great, and there is sparing use of backing vocals to add colour and interest in just the right measure, too. Keyboards thrum to the song’s pulse in different colours, and white noise sweeps introduce new textures and ideas along the way. There’s never a dull moment! It feels like a journey where, each time you look out of the window, there’s a new wonder to behold…
The track ends with both vintage and modern synth camps playing off against each other. It’s a gorgeous and satisfying conclusion, with the ghost of Yazoo-era Vince Clarke looking over the shoulder of this modern sensibility that Mogix is applying to proceedings.
