Tim: Do you remember Castles in the Sky? Of course you do – it was the early 2000s, as far as I’m concerned a Golden Age of music in Britain, with Eurodance colonising the charts every summer, and that song epitomised it.
Tom: Oh, that takes me back. Specifically, it takes me back to the upper floor of the Nottingham laser tag centre, defending the red base from anyone who tried to make it up the stairs.
Tim: Fast forward a few years, though, and utter tripe has largely taken over.
Tom: I quite like Disturbia, thank you very much.
Tim: Seriously? Huh. Anyway, regardless of the popularity shift, Ian van Dahl are still going, albeit with a different name, and they bring out this, get no airplay because it’s not cool any more, and fail to chart anywhere except their native Belgium.
Tom: Ah, Hard2Beat Records. They know their target market, and they aren’t afraid to pitch to them.
Tim: That failure to chart is a great shame, really, because this is good.
Tom: Now that’s where you’re wrong. It’s competent. It’s not good.
Tim: Well, I’ll accept that it is fairly generic, and does very little to challenge the ‘all dance music sounds the same’ bull that my parents like to put out there every now and again, although it does at least stay away from the snare drum buildup cliche* (by replacing it with a synth buildup instead).
Tom: That synth buildup may be the only original thing in the song.
Tim: You know what? I don’t care about originality – I like it, and it reminds me of a better time. Although it isn’t as good as Castles in the Sky.
Tom: Well, of course it isn’t. For a start, it doesn’t make me want to play laser tag.