The Influencers: “Champagne” Single Review
“Champagne” is a beautiful, cinematic tune that acts more as an overarching bridge with a chorus than a full song.
Sometimes when I write out my criticisms, I feel like I’m just being stubborn and not ready to listen to something new at the moment. And I can definitely be like that at times.
When I first sat down to listen to “Champagne,” I was honestly disappointed. I can’t say I’ve loved every song that The Influencers have dropped, but I still had high hopes for this latest single after almost a whole year between new music.
Initially, I listened to the song with Kula Shaker’s “I’m Against It” at the back of my mind (having just finished reviewing it). I found it ironic that I was ending off 2020 disappointed by a song with no bridge, and I was starting 2021 disappointed by a song with seemingly no verses.
“Champagne” is very much a cinematic tune – the music is meant to add a background – the canvas for the mural about to be painted – and here I am, rocking out to garage rock and Britpop bands with strong and distinguished guitar riffs. The song doesn’t really start with a verse, it is more of an overarching bridge followed by a chorus. If you think about a song like a series of rising peaks and falling valleys, most songs with a typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus organizational structure follow a pattern of multiple rises and short falls with a peak at the end. “Champagne,” however, follows a simpler pattern, rising slowly up to a peak that soon falls back down with the last of the lyrics. So instead of feeling inspired or satisfied, it left me thinking, “Is that all?”
It certainly took me a while to warm up to the new single. At first, I was replaying the song, determined to pay attention, but by the end I realized that I had completely zoned out. It wasn’t until I thought back to what I’d learned from my interview with the band’s frontman, Evan Yan, and drummer Steven Suarez that I began to think better about their newest single.
If there’s one thing to be said about Yan, he certainly is a poet. As I have never had a taste of alcohol, nor do I ever plan to, I have no understanding of the what it feels like “To be human/In a world of sweet champagne.” But with the knowledge of Yan’s background and the context clues of the song’s other lyrics, I see “Champagne” as an ode to the celebration of life.
Having lost his mother in his youth, the power of “Someday I won’t be here” hits hard when you take into consideration the story told at the beginning of the song. The music, though not as outspoken as other songs that take up most of my listening history, sets a wistful tone that reaches back into the past. The song is very much a lyrical spotlight, the music simply carrying the listener from a stage of sentimental recollections of motherly love and security to an outburst of freedom and fearlessness in the bridge as we spread out our arms against the wind outside of a moving car.
I feel compelled to give the song a higher ranking than what my head is telling me. I am still left wanting more, just a little bit more time to reflect before its peak, maybe a second verse, a different memory to compare. But for the nature of the song, maybe the simplicity suits it better.
Rating: 3/5
