A three-way struggle between being heartbreakingly beautiful, beautifully heartbreaking, and insanely catchy, is at work on Lust For Youth‘s new single, “Stardom”, and is perhaps the norm for the Copenhagen trio. The first single from their newly announced Compassion LP, “Stardom” is a continuation of their supremely longing, undeniably haunting, retroactive sound, taking its time to let every note sink in and move you. An entire solar system is created simply with the opening drone, and a shimmering, ethereal main lead floats above all; a beaming light from on high, instilling the unknowable euphoria of weightlessness. But it’s leveled in the sorrowful reality at the convergence of bass and rhythm. One can’t exist without the other, and its composition of the instruments coasts along in light and is pulled into dark with each passing note.
Like the self-conscious guilt of a prolonged laughter, the song can’t allow itself to feel too good for too long. Hannes Norrvide’s vocals consume the airiness, and bask in the song’s misery, inverting the romantic gleam of “stardom” and maintaining that it’s something to be admired from below, yet being there is lonelier than you can imagine. Compassion will also feature last year’s single, “Better Looking Brother”, promising for the progression, and honing, of the band’s [incredibly] danceable depression.
Compassion will be released March 18 on Sacred Bones Records. You can stream “Stardom” below.
