Song of the Week 32.5: 'Somewhere to Hide' by Hy Bound and Loka LaFevre (redo)

Apparently this is the first real post that's been posted since I posted a week ago. Really? C'mon, I don't want to be the only one putting stuff on here. Because of this predicament, Song of the Week 32 was never posted, so I guess we're just moving on to the .5 edition...Anyway, this is a redo of SotW 4. This is the first piece I'm reviewing that has vocals in it, by the way. So here's 'Somewhere to Hide' (by Hy Bound and Loka LaFevre).

The beginning starts out with a muffled orchestral section. At 0:15 the orchestral stuff isn't heard anymore; instead it's much more elaborate and electronic. In this this section also, effects are heard playing triplets, and the vocals start up as well. At 0:23 percussion starts playing, and a transition/crescendo occurs at 0:27. The vocal will continuously rise up in pitch during this. At 0:30 the percussion kicks into high gear, an electronic synth is playing a neat harmony, and the vocal starts off by repeating the word "somewhere" (and then it will echo after it's sung). There's another vocal going on as well, and it's the same voice and rhythm back at 0:15. At 0:45 the vocals stay the same, but another synth comes to create a more complex rhythm/melody, and the percussion died down and simplified. The vocals drop after a couple seconds, making that electronic rhythm mentioned earlier the melody. There's also another, much lower synth being played that not only acts like a bass, but it also gives more of a rock feel to the song. This section continues until 1:15. At 1:16, the "somewhere"s are back, and continue to echo. There are also strings added in as well to blend in with all of the other electronic stuff going on. At 0:23, the words that the vocalist is singing are changed slightly. Added on the the usual "somewhere" will be what is the whole phrase sung throughout the track, which is "somewhere you'll be hiding somewhere from me". I guess that explains the title somewhat, but notice later how the actual title word for word is never sung. Also, there are slight pauses between every one or two words. At 1:31 more of the electronic bass returns, and the vocalist continues to repeat the phrase until "from me" is echoed (which starts at 1:36). The echoing stops at 1:42, leaving the bass and the background effects. At 1:46 there's a very low and robotic "somewhere" spoken, and the song will then continue after that. The percussion plays a whole lot more here, and it's now (rhythm and vocal-wise) a combination and repetition of the sections at 0:45 and 0:30. It will still be the same later on, but there's a change at 2:03 where the vocalist starts to sing the entire phrase again. There's a very brief percussion solo at about 2:08 after that, but then the song repeats what was just played/sung. There's a cut-off at 2:18, which leaves "from me" echoing while the introductory orchestral section played at the very beginning appears. The echoes fade out, but then a newer vocal comes in at 2:30 that's a little lower than the last (all these vocals are feminine, by the way). The vocal here doesn't sing any actual words; it's mainly there for effect, but it does make everything sound a little more exotic. As the vocalist sings, strings come in to play a rising, three-note pattern. At about 2:43 there's a crescendo, and at 2:46 a lot more strings are added as well as some light percussion. The lower strings handle that pattern just mentioned, while the higher will play the same thing (but they play it very quickly). This continues for a while, and near the end of the this section more electronic effects can be heard instead of the strings. At 3:17 is when the section finally changes. The "somewhere"s echo again, but there's definitely more electronicness going on (and percussion). Very cool sounding it is right here. At 1:31 the vocal goes back into the full phrase. The percussion is more noticeable here as well, and the electronic stuff going on really makes the song sound the way it is. At 3:47 it goes back into the section played at 2:03. At 4:02 the vocals go back into just repeating "somewhere", and the percussion continues to do its thing. The electronic stuff does a whole lot more here as well. At 4:17 everything cuts off, leaving "somewhere" to fade away...somewhere. Then the song comes to a close.

Pros: I thought that the mix of electronic and orchestral sounds was pretty neat; I could hardly tell the difference between the two because they sounded so well together. The vocals weren't half bad either. The percussion had a decent volume throughout the song and wasn't too overpowering, and all of the different electronic sounds and synths sounded very cool.

Cons: It was a little too repetitive I think. It's not really the vocals that are to blame (they obviously repeated all the words on purpose), but all the rhythms going on in the background hardly made any changes whatsoever, so it made the song slightly boring.

Overall: The song is pretty good for an electronic piece that had lyrics. It's predictable though, and its repetitiveness can get stuck in my head easily. It's pretty cool to listen to though.

Rating: 8.7/10