The Colder Sea are back with “Hot Summer Nights,” yet another compelling piece of indie synthpop/retrosynth from the duo. The dark and gorgeous cut is part of the Vox Populi 3 compilation released this week on the Retro Promenade label.
If you recall, Sarah and Daniel Egger often sound like a mix between CHVRCHES, mid-80s Depeche Mode, and Zola Jesus with some degree of a Johnny Jewel influence. On “Summer,” the duo maintains the hooky synthesizer wizardry of their recently released debut, Future Skies, creating a vast, electronic space that could provide quite the backdrop for a meaty, post-modern John Hughes-influenced film or TV show.
There are crashing drum machines, spacey guitars, careful arpeggiations, and big, cold, and dark synths that all come together to create the ideal atmosphere to complement the sincerity of the Eggers’ reverb-laden vocals.
With Sarah on lead pipes, the vocals offer the final ingredient in a formula that makes a listener find contemplation as viable as the act of reminiscing about the ephemeral nature of a season seemingly designed to never truly leave a mark. This is a hot summer night they’re remembering, for sure, but they never promised it’d be a disposable one.
