The Singles Bar: Forever X2 risks it all with ‘Walk the Ocean’
The alt-pop god drags his feet into the sand with his new beach-side banger.
Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.
When we’re young, we think we’re totally invincible. Sloshy tropical drinks and bottom shelf liquor collapse into blurry flashes of sweaty dive-bars, dirty subway rides and seashells crunching underneath bare feet. We cheers to the good times and good company, throwing caution (and responsibility) to the wind. Lightning is captured in a bottle of memory; smells, visions, touches, sounds become transportive, and we are slaves to the past in a beautifully tragic way. Alt-pop funk master Forever X2 (real name Peter Verdell) peeks from behind his glistening shades with a cool wink, nod and charming smirk. “Walk the Ocean” combs the oceanic pop scene, borrowing from the sexual cinema of DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean,” for an even more fevered wet dream.
There’s a wildness echoing out of his eyes, and he rides frothy waves on his way to superstar glory. “I don’t know where we’re going / I just know that I want you with me,” he kisses the air with his tongue. Recorded in his smoggy downtown Los Angeles apartment, alongside other previous cuts as “Think About It” and “Keep the Devil Waiting,” the gummy tofu jam splinters through the lo-fi static with a provocative wiggle. His voice nestles comfortably in the crinkle paper, and even when the beat throbs in the throat, he somehow flowers into a musical medication, like an intangible vapor rub. “Show me all the ways you know how,” he motions from across the crystalline waters, croaking on his way to the sand.
“Walk the Ocean” is very much a call to risk-taking shenanigans, as he sheds all his last inhibitions for a rendezvous along the coastline. “I think we all have a bit of magic in u…like walking on water…but we can’t see that magic if we play it safe,” he says of the song, which whets the taste buds for his upcoming new EP, out later this year. With the song crashing like a fallen star across the night sky, ghost-like particles trailing behind, we must follow his lead without hesitation.
Listen below:
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