With their debut single ‘Drop a Coin’ The Open Flames have made an audacious entry into the London music scene. Blending dark indie-pop tones with a cinematic vintage flair, the track unfurls like a haunting short film—mysterious, brooding, and building toward an unexpectedly grandiose climax.
Opening with a fuzzy distorted bassline kicks in, bright guitar tones and tight boxy drums, the track quickly captures a vintage alternative tone before the vocals enter. The breathy, gravelly vocals weave a tale steeped in vivid, almost otherworldly imagery, while eerie “bah-bah” backup harmonies float like distant echoes, providing an unsettling but addictive texture to the song.
The band’s arrangement is minimalist but potent, a slow burn that feels like a fuse inching toward detonation. It’s stylishly restrained for the first half, casting a dark spell that pulls you into its shadowy world. However, just when you think you’ve grasped the song’s trajectory, it swerves into a second act that explodes with choral crescendos and chaotic imagery. The sudden shift mirrors a surrealistic horror scene as cryptic lyricism gives way to an inferno of sound, sweeping the listener into a Dantean descent.
Talking about the track, the band explains: “We wrote the song with the metaphor of paying a tithe to a blind girl sitting at the Gates of Hell to describe the hesitation before knocking on the door of your prom date, or a wedding chapel. It was inspired by the final moments of Ian Curtis of Joy Division before he passed into another life. The song’s second half passes through the Gate to fly over a tormented landscape of Dante-esque souls who rise up howling from the fires and boiling muds of Hell.”
Composed of members of US-based Sleepy Kitty and Harvey Danger (of ‘Peep Show’ theme song) and London’s Say Yes, Do Nothing, The Open Flames bring equal parts attitude and experience to their rough-edged, literate alt-rock. Recorded during biannual sessions in London, ‘Same Time Next Year’ took shape via international listening sessions, focused practices, and sometimes raucous hangouts.
Listen below:
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