The Answer Is In The Beat

Sally Shapiro: If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind 7″ (Fika Recordings, 2016)

August 27, 2016 at 9:07 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

A decade after the release of Disco Romance (a very important album to my past, present and future for many reasons), Swedish duo Sally Shapiro have announced that they will no longer be making music together. This is their final single, and it’s every bit as gorgeous, bittersweet, catchy, etc. as any of their other classic songs. Similar to their last album, they’ve moved on from strictly trying to sound like Italo-disco, although the influence is still there. It’s a little more lush and live-sounding (relatively, it’s still electronic) and there’s vocoders peering through the shadows. The melody/structure bears a little bit of a resemblance to “Never Gonna Give You Up”, which might sound like a lazy comparison but I think it fits, it’s that sort of pop thrill, even if this song is way more subdued. I love how the title’s sentiment is so open-ended, as if they’re saying they’re always open to making music together again someday. Even if that never happens, they’re concluding an astonishing run. Aside from the perfect A-side, the B-side is an acoustic David Guetta cover. That sounds like something dredged up from the depths of YouTube hell, but it’s not bad. Stripped of EDM garishness and graced by Sally’s voice, it sounds like a decent little tune. The digital version of the single has 2 remixes of the A-side, which are decent but I prefer the original. Tommy ’86 brings the song to the dancefloor, while Ben Macklin’s is more subdued and I think I like that one better.