“Won’t you open up your car door / Drive me deep into your dark world”
It’s almost summer, which means it’s that time for blasting dance-y pop pieces like “Tinted Windows,” the latest from Golden Age. The New York-based band brings a few surprises into the conventionally catchy tune, namely, the lyrical content.
With an airy synth foundation to work with, frontwoman Sydney Sahr croons about myth, mystery, and melancholy. It makes it harder to get swept up in the soaring “ohs” and pulsing beat (including a very striking drum part) when Sahr throws out phrases like “I fall a little harder / when you’re suited up in armor,” recalling some fantasy elements and the ideals that come with them. She sings of someone who is “half man, half myth.” While it stays grounded in the present, the song still keeps those images of a knight in shining armor in the background.
Look closely, though, and the knight isn’t necessarily shining. “Tinted Windows” doesn’t exactly have a happy ending, as its core message is more about longing than it is about romance. The song “is about giving in to the pull of an enigma,” Sahr said. The idea of pairing an unrequited love with a joyous sound and feel was deliberate. As Sahr put it, “you might as well go down dancing.”
That’s an outlook that will produce interesting results, as proven here with “Tinted Windows.” Combined with a pop base, Sydney Sahr’s smooth, powerful vocals, and some obvious skill in lyrics and content, Golden Age have already earned some well-deserved attention.
Golden Age’s debut EP “Heroine” is due out in July.
