Elen Never Sleeps: “Spinning Wheel”

Tokyo’s Elen Never Sleeps specializes in palatable and clever pop, delivered straight from his bedroom to yours. “Spinning Wheel” begins simply enough, with a straightforward drum machine beating out over breathlessly plaintive back to back verses, before launching into a refrain that’s as uber catchy as you could hope for. The vocal harmonies circle each above the intertwined guitar parts gain momentum, allowing the melancholy nature of the charmingly delivered lyrics comes into clearer focus. It’s a proven formula for pop success that’s been effectively repackaged into an interesting song structure that plays up the strengths of the music, rather than exhausting them. It’s really fun stuff with that’s reminiscent of the new romantics and some of the more lyrically profuse Swedish studio pop of the last few years. Warning: repeat listening may result in spontaneous pajama dance parties.

Elen Never Sleeps: “Spinning Wheel”

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Written by Luke Carrell