Single/Video Review: This City Floats

From a simple opening beat to a wonderful flourish of acoustic guitars layered with luscious chorus and flange effects, the new single from Torn Chorus, This City Floats, is brought to life with wailing electric lead guitar licks and slides that sound melodically precise and emotive.

Crisp vocals tell you about the labour and reward that you get for following the beaten path to the top, which as the video shows so well, is Auckland’s remnant volcanic cones, but the metaphor could be used for any journey in life. Other themes are expressed with the strains of “we float on molten rock” and that our “solid rock will never stay the same” so in the end the messages cover a bit of ground so to speak.

Torn Chorus is the performing name of Franklin Davis, a songwriter, musician and photographer from Auckland, and with these talents he has melded a cool video for the track with images of Auckland and violent volcanic eruptions that are thrilling and stimulating. The beat is steady and, although lacking in any real variation, it does its job as a metronomic pulse for Franklin’s vocal and impressive guitar work.

All in all, the multiple guitar sound is glorious and quite gratifying with the harmonious strums, picks and slides coalescing and playfully fusing together in blissful unison. Matching nicely with the video, the song about a city that floats has its own floating quality due to its harmonic sound which is pleasing and enjoyable.