“Vapour trails above, Reaching out for your touch”
Don’t you love those songs that are just perfect for blasting in your car? You know, the ones where you roll your windows down, crank the volume up, and confidently nod your head to the beat, knowing you look like a total boss at that very moment.
How about songs where you close your eyes and imagine things like white linen sheets swaying gently on clotheslines outside? Those songs are the ones you listen to on top of a hill while you trace clouds with your fingertips as the warm sun makes you squint ever so slightly. Very few songs fit both criteria, and yet, that is precisely the magic of “Vapour Trails” by Bag Raiders – the third and final track on their new Waterfalls EP. Take a look at the song’s length (5:44) and it makes sense why the song’s mood shifts here and there.
It seems like the Australian duo of Jack Glass and Chris Stracey have learned from their previous songs like “Golden Wings” – an enjoyable yet highly repetitive experience. Here, that problem is almost entirely absent as the song leads us into an ethereal electronic heaven accompanied by relaxed, barely coherent vocals that talk of love and, of course, vapor trails. But the song wastes no time in picking up the pace as the vocals mostly fade away, unburdening itself from one layer and making things that much lighter. Eventually the vocals do come back and the entire song turns into a wonderful cycle between two moods.
At its core, “Vapour Trails” is a friendly gliding adventure with an infectious beat and there are moments when you can easily see this song being picked up by Coca-Cola and getting some playtime in one of their commercials that features a happy montage of good times with good company. I don’t know if androids dream of electric sheep, but I like to think this is the song that might be playing in the background when they’re having a particularly fluffy – yet exciting – dream.