There’s a particular bit of magic that happens when a band can bottle the joy and craftiness up in just one single track, and Splendid Torch nails it with their newest offering, “Double Backflip”.
As the title suggests, the song jumps up and down with energy and lands on its feet effortlessly. Every touch of every note feels confident and charismatic. “Double Backflip” is the sound of sunlight slipping across water, lush, vibrant, and filled with motion. The band adds layers of jaunty rhythms beneath a whirl of strings, setting a soundscape that is playful but precise. It’s the type of tune that makes you want to tap your foot, grin at strangers, and perhaps even twirl around the kitchen.
Splendid Torch discovers the chimeric coupling of technical finesse and emotional warmth, which keeps things sweet and true without losing their playfulness. There is a palpable sense of celebration on “Double Backflip,” not of flawless execution but rather joyful imperfection, of creative risk-taking and sticking the landing. It’s music that invites you to feel good unabashedly, hip to the ringing in the ears, to locate rhythm in daily absurdity, and to recall that art can be as smart-assed as it is kind.
Splendid Torch doesn’t so much pull off a musical trick with “Double Backflip” as they turn it into an artful dance of melody, motion, and meaning.