Runaway Zoo – Mess Without You

“I want more of it. Much more.”

Tim: These guys are a band from Finland, and, well, I’m not sure if “synthrock” is a genre, but if this is anything to go by I’d like it to be please.

Tim: Couple of brief individual notes – I always find it a bit disconcerting when bands split “fine” over two beats as “fuh-ine”, because there’s the initial possibility that the song could go off in a completely different direction.

Tom: I didn’t understand what that sentence meant until I heard that line. Yep, that’s not how my brain completed that line.

Tim: Also the “baby, your” kicking off the chorus brings What Makes You Beautiful to mind immediately, never a bad thing.

Tom: These are both very specific notes, though.

Tim: Yes, so more generally: I love this track, almost every single part of it. The single part I don’t like is that the opening instrumental part of the middle eight, which is absolutely wonderful, doesn’t also appear as a post-chorus earlier in the song as well. Having nothing there makes the song go too quickly, and when I hear that fantastic instrumental part I just want more.

Tom: It’s odd to hear all your comments being specific rather than wide-ranging. For my part: good instrumentation, lovely arpeggios, and — as you said — surprisingly good and joyously old-school middle-eight synths. The rest of it…

Tim: I don’t often say this about a song, but it’s too short. I want more of it. Much more. MORE OF THAT MIDDLE EIGHT.

Tom: …yep. As is so often, the best part is the bit that isn’t like the rest of the song.