Music Notes

Chasing Paradise, by OneRepublic and Kygo

My fourth choice is a dance track dropped January 24th, 2025. Kygo is an EDM (electronic dance music) producer who often collaborates with my favorite artists, OneRepublic and Imagine Dragons. Even when he doesn't, he's one of the few EDM people I can usually recognize his light, shimmering style in a song's production.

Chasing Paradise is a bright and cheerful song, where lead singer and lyricist Ryan Tedder shows off his best skills. He opens on a gruff note, and indeed the whole song runs deeper than he usually does, which reminds me of what I learned recently about his little trick of coughing up a cigar to deepen his voice. (Why do that when you can adjust it electronically? More authentic, I guess.)

Something I appreciate about Ryan's songwriting is when he packs more words into a song than would be generally expected. Sometimes, especially recently, he gets lazy with the lyrics, but occasionally 1R comes out with a song with more variety than repetition. This is important when dealing with EDM, as they often do not have as many unique lyrics as an ordinary song and can be repetitive to the point of devaluation.

This song dropped at exactly the right moment for me, as I'd been struggling through about ten days of polar vortex, becoming irritable and emotionally drained by the lack of sunlight and constant damp chill in the air. I've lived in Florida since 2019, so I was no longer acclimated to days barely reaching 45°F.

Finally that morning the sun broke through the clouds, and Chasing Paradise was there to help cheer me up and remind me of warmer days ahead. I had it on loop all day, dancing to it at home and bringing it with me to combat the noisy environment as I shopped, which I don't usually do. (Ironically, as I removed my earbuds while leaving, I found Walmart was playing an old favorite from OneRepublic: Love Runs Out (2014) )

Enjoy this warm and hopeful spot of sunshine on a cloudy day

Words: 349.