Synth Single Review: “Dance the Pain Away’’ by Arcade Beach

Arcade Beach’s Dance the Pain Away carries a message of renewal and reconnecting. The song commences as Ben Paska’s truly massive drums reverberate and Nick Sauter’s guitar charges in with electrifying power while a hollow-sounding synth glows with bliss. Nick Sauter carries the vocals with intense engagement, capturing the need and loss within the lyrics.

The chorus is slightly broken and full of longing, as the guitar leaps out with a melody that jangles and shimmers. The beat is hard-hitting as pan pipes flicker with breathy positivity. The bass is thick while the percussion frolics. As the guitar flashes, I am captured by the love and wanting reflected in Nick Sauter’s performance.

The main melody shines with celestial light before the guitar solo is conveyed in mellow tones, lushly intertwining, while faraway vocals drift with the fiery guitar. The huge ’80s-style drums throb and Nick Sauter reaches into memory. The main melody skips past with solar energy while the rhythm jumps.

“What happened to the love we shared?” our narrator asks, pointing out that they had “sparks in the dark but everything’s grown cold.” He adds, “I’m dialing in on that frequency, oh what you mean to me!” For him, it’s like “a heartbreak coming around,” as he doesn’t look behind or below. He knows that “out is through.”

The storyteller says, “If you break me make a sound, let them know I was out of bounds,” as he adds that he knows it’s “very cool.” He wonders if it’ll be possible for them to talk it over, to try to turn the tide and go back to the life they knew before, standing in the rain and “dancing away the pain.”

They “might be broken but we sure ain’t through,” as our narrator suggests there’s always something to be done, “like carrying on when the lights go out.” He concludes by saying that it’s all about soldiering on which is very cool.