• Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
  • Search Site

Polari Magazine

  • Home
  • Up Front
    • Editorial
    • Clementine: The Living Fashion Doll
    • Polari Safari
    • WTF? Friday
    • Bulletin Board
    • Polari Facts
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Gallery
    • Opinion
    • Heroes & Villains
  • Community
    • Oral Histories
    • Coming Out Stories
    • Relationships
    • IDAHO
    • LGBT History Month
    • Blogs
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Film and Television
    • Music
    • Stage
    • Visual Arts
    • Classics: Books
    • Classics: Film and Television
    • Classics: Music
  • About
    • About Polari Magazine
    • Contributors
    • Contact

You are here: Polari Magazine / Music / Life Is Easy • Bright Light Bright Light

Bright-Light-Bright-Light

Life Is Easy

★★★★★
Bright Light Bright Light
47:48 min • Self Raising • July 4, 2014
Nick Smith reviews
…………………………………………………………………………………………

Although there is still an electro-synth storm of sorts at work in the music industry, it’s wonderful to know that there are some lightning forks such as Graingerboy, Frankmusik and Bright Light Bright Light, lending their originality, sincerity and pure talent to the densely populated genre. Bright Light Bright Light is the nom de plume (lifted from a Gizmo quote from the film Gremlins) of musical marvel Rod Thomas who was catapulted to critical acclaim and celebrity adulation with his debut album Make Me Believe In Hope.

Where his first full length record could have been tagged with a sad-face emoji, Life Is Easy has a knowing optimistic wisdom coursing through its sonic blueprint. Slow burning ambience underpins the synth-pop of the opener ‘Everything I Ever Wanted’. This could easily be a hidden track from a Pet Shop Boys album with its melancholic, yet positive lean on a break-up. ‘There Are No Miracles’ channels left-field, ambient Kylie at her very best and seems to tread a Dolly Parton-esque narrative of making your own dreams come true.

‘I Wish We Were Leaving’ showcases a more cinematic feel which suits Thomas’s sincere and melancholic vocal perfectly, not to mention an on-form, sanguine Elton John who adds another side to this story in his verse, rendering the beautiful track both mournful and hopeful:

Small talk, big nights,
So many signs you’re not alright,
Going faster than you wanted –

One of the album’s highlights is the pulsating ‘An Open Heart’, a perfect left-field and euphoric sister to Madonna’s ‘Frozen’, in which Thomas explores self-empowerment, rather than trying to melt another’s heart. Another apex is the absolute banger ‘Good Luck’ with its deep-house piano forming a spiteful jab at a worthless ex.

Good luck finding somebody else fool enough to let you get into their head,
Just don’t hold your breath –

This slight unpleasant taste is eliminated completely when the track weaves instantly into the positively exultant ‘I Believe’ where the euphoric beats and vocals are divine.

Although the album harks back slightly to the synth of the ’80s and the piano-house of the ’90s, nothing here sounds dated, as more real instruments are featured with strings, guitars and pianos, lending a somewhat cinematic composition to the record. ‘Lust For Life’ is the perfect example of this crossover, a beautiful ambient ballad with an ethereal vocal buttressed by a synth dreamscape.

‘Too Much’ is awash with a deep New York house feel with its synth shimmers and heavy bassline and ‘In Your Care’ has lost none of its ethereal splendour since its release last year. ‘More Than Most’ is an ode to a deflated friend and has some wonderful lyrical affirmations and vocal harmonies. There is a somewhat far-eastern feel from the tinkly keyboards and guitar strums, lending more to the adventurous heart of the track:

To hell with your money, if you can’t afford to dream,
And to hell with the others and how pretty they can be.
You’ve got more than most if you could open your eyes –

The album closes with the opulent, mid-tempo ballad ‘Happiness’ with shades of The Beloved ‘Sweet Harmony’ albeit with a coarser beat which soars into an empowering crescendo.
Life Is Easy is a rather cathartic journey with themes of loss, empowerment and new beginnings, but ultimately has a more optimistic and cinematic feel than its predecessor. Bright Light Bright Light is proof however that lightning does strike twice. Magnificent.

 

Share this post:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Search Polari

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

About Polari Magazine

Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

Polari is designed to nurture the idea of community, whether that be social and political, or artistic and creative. It is your magazine, whether you want to read it, or whether you want to get involved in it, if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer.

Polari Magazine is all these: it's a gay online magazine; it's a gay and lesbian online magazine; it's an LGBT arts and culture magazine. Ultimately, it is a queer magazine.

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

Twitter

Tweets by @PolariMagazine

Archive

  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
© Copyright - Polari Magazine - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at
  • scroll to top
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Website Privacy & Cookies