Synth Single Review: “Neon Centuries’’ by Dress to Impress

Dress to Impress’s Neon Centuries tells a story of deep connections across time. The song starts as a series of retro commercials move like stations being changed on a television. Easily drifting synth spins with soothing motion as finger snaps add a sharp contrast. The arpeggiating notes wander into open space, floating and gliding as they move.

Bell-like notes shine with broken light as the bass drifts and computerized vocals carry the wistfully nostalgic melody above the pulsing drums. An enigmatic, floating quality fills the words and evokes thoughtful contemplation in me.

Colossal bass surges unevenly as the ticking percussion shifts. The vocals slide past with mournful longing as the sparkling synth flickers and the drums and bass guide. The track slides through a segment in which distorted vocals whisper and the massive drums pulsate as the bass rumbles.

The main melody flows with a painful feeling above the twirling synth arpeggios. The drum beat moves forward as the aching melody glides on the lead singer's smooth voice while the simmering bells glimmer. The vocals flow with longing and emptiness as the bass seethes and delicate notes flash. The tremulous bells join the vocals as they call out with hurt and yearning before the song ends.

Our storyteller talks about being held up and challenged, adding, “it’s so real.” A “dance of shadows, a velvet veil” moves into the darkness in an unreal way. There are “synthetic, electric circuits lining the chrome” as their “wired hearts” drift home over neon centuries, unknown and alone.

The narrator says that his dreams unfold “a tale of love and passion that can’t be spoiled” in the deepest recesses of his mind. He talks about a “mystic voice that binds our souls” as secrets open in his memory and voices call to him. He speaks of a love-enchanted world that becomes possible “under the shadow, the velvet veil” as dreams unfurl into his mind.