A Perfect Example

Regular readers of The Pop Web will know that we declared that Kickstarts by Example was the 4th best song of last year. What made that track so amenable to our tastes was the combination of the amazing production, the utterly addictive backing track and the sensitive and perfectly-observed cyclicality of a relationship going stale.

We are thrilled to report that Example's latest offering pretty much captures that winning formula, bottles it, and then uses it as a marinade for the first single for upcoming album Playing In The Shadows. It's called Changed The Way You Kiss Me and sounds a little bit like this

Structurally, the track owes much to Kickstarts. But as you can hear, the dark, synthesised backing track creates a much moodier atmosphere than on its spiritual predecessor. In many ways, we'd quite like to see "Changed" as the "anti-Kickstarts" (i.e. where everything turned out to be alright again in Kickstarts, everything goes to shit in "Changed" - in a narrative rather than a musical sense, obviously). That feeling is compounded by the foreboding lyrics "But now I want off this ride/ Cos you're scaring me/ And I don't like where we're going". Playing expertly with the instrumentation to build the tension in the track, Changed The Way You Kiss Me encapsulates beautifully that sense of dread creeping up on you when a relationship slowly morphs from something into amazing into something a little bit awful.

What really works in this track, though, is when Example allows the strength of his vocal shine through. Does he have a technically perfect voice? No. But that really isn't the point. The final chorus where he decries "Our love feels wrong, please wind it back/ Our love feels wrong, can't hide the cracks." has a genuine sense of despair behind it and gives the song a real authenticity and a menace. As the amazing blog Electroqueer points out this track is both "real and relevant". It also reinforces our conviction that lyrically, Example's music has an extremely acute observational quality which makes it so relatable and enjoyable. We can't wait to see what else Playing In The Shadows may have in store.