The last time Astrid Cordes was here, back in May, she’d written a song about giving up on her dreams (because she’s a perfectionist and didn’t think she could achieve them) precisely to stop herself doing just that, if you follow my drift.
I concluded, after listening to that one (‘Stop dreaming’) that she had more than enough talent both musically and vocally and perhaps it’s time to start dreaming.
This time she’s chronicling “the beautiful yet troubled journey of someone special entering your life, turning your dreams and everything you knew upside down…” and prompting you to ‘Surrender.’
I don’t know about surrendering. From the opening note it is more in the way of a full blown artillery and air support-backed offensive, using the entire armoury at her disposal. The opening bars channel The Go-Go’s version of ‘Our lips are sealed’ so well that I thought it was the Californian girls providing backing, with the assistance of Toni Basil fresh from singing the praises of ‘Mickey’.
It’s hard to take in that she wrote ‘Surrender’ on a harp, later transforming the strings into a memorable synth-theme backed by piano parts and horn-sections that swing like a full-on Big Band.
Just like last time she’s combined pop with indie rock, and again the two complement each other perfectly and as before the last thirty seconds or so carry a punch of the order of the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture as she appears to gather every synthesiser in Denmark into what might accompany the grand Tivoli Gardens’ firework display.
It’s big, it’s brash, it’s bold and hopefully you’ll hear it on the BBC because Astrid merits that degree of national exposure here.
I’m assuming that ‘Surrender’, which is released on 25th August,will also be a track on Astrid’s forthcoming EP, which will drop next month.
Find her on:
Label website: https://celebrationrecords.dk/artist/astrid-cordes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AstridCordesMusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/astridcordes/
