Synth Single Review: “Boys on the Run’’ by Andrew Corbin & Hollywood Brown

Andrew Corbin & Hollywood Brown’s Boys on the Run talks about toxic and damaged individuals. The song begins with massively driving drums and delicately floating synth. Crisp arpeggios flicker as broadly echoing synth calls out with a roaming melody above the heavily thundering low end. Andrew Corbin carries the melody with a unique vocal tone as the flashing chords add a lambent shine.

The chorus climbs as the diamond-bright arpeggios undulate and Andrew Corbin sings with heightened emotion. I am drawn to the way in which the vocals are delivered, combining poise and expression. Hollywood Brown's guitar unwinds with a ghostly smoothness, reverberating and twirling, intricate and full of haunting sensation.

Bell-like synth flares as Andrew Corbin's voice captures the dark shadings of the lyrics. Underneath everything, the low end pulsates with muscled energy, while the trickling synth flickers above the resonating chords and the vocals carry deep feeling. All of the musical layers interlock to provide a rich background. Now a strummed guitar dances with fragile, glittering expression as Andrew Corbin’s dynamic voice wraps around my ears before the song ends.

The narrator has been wandering, asking why the song's subject is hiding so far away from him. He adds, “I'm wondering what you're hiding from me anyway.” He knows the other person realizes they're doing something wrong, that they “should be better than this,” and adds that they’re being haunted “by the faces in the night.” He wonders if they “should get a medal for this.”

Our storyteller says, “You’re just boys on the run and you're never going to make it right.” He adds that they just poison the well and “try to dim the light.” He's been roaming around in search of a new place to stay and wondering, “Can I fly with you all the way?”