Some records will win you over through the sheer energy of the thing, some through the quality of the storytelling and some just have that quality about them that makes you feel that music can still be a force that opens doors to new possibilities. “Let’s Imagine” is one of those. It’s an independent record which has a very accessible musical arrangement and a very ambitious vision. It’s a record that is absolutely full of hope but doesn’t lose the sense of the questions it’s asking. What I find interesting about this song is not so much what it says as how it makes you feel. It kicks off with the very warm sound of acoustic guitar and you immediately feel very close to it. The piano comes in with a nice amount of feeling, the drums and bass provide a solid sense of forward movement. As the strings come in and the production builds the song takes on a much broader, more cinematic quality and it really does come across as a song that was written to be shared. There’s a real sense of balance in that progression. The music never loses its human feel even as the arrangement becomes quite big and sweeping. Each new layer just adds to the ambience, creating a natural build that you really do feel. It’s a very effective way of doing it and allows the piece to be both intimate and expansive at the same time which is a very good thing for a piece of music that’s essentially built on an idea.
Beyond the production ‘Let’s Imagine’ actually provides something that is increasingly rare in today’s music scene, which is an unambiguous call for the listener to think for themselves. The song is about a future in which we have individual freedom, we cooperate voluntarily and we have a completely decentralised technology (no government at all). It’s a rather radical subject and that’s what gives the record its own character. It’s not just a song about the world as it is, it’s a song about what the world could be if we were to question some of our most fundamental assumptions. What I like about this is the sheer ambition of it. Music has always been a medium through which artists can explore ideas that go well beyond their own life experience and “Let’s Imagine” is very much of that ilk. The message is open to interpretation I think, but the spirit of it is very much one of constructive possibility; that imagining alternatives is in itself a useful exercise when it comes to thinking about the future. That sense of possibility is also evident in the songs musicality. The acoustic guitar is all sincerity, the piano is very reflective and the big sweeping strings provide a very uplifting conclusion to the piece. It’s a very accessible sound without being anything in particular. There’s plenty of melodic warmth to draw you in and the build is such that it has the feel of an anthem. For me the most interesting thing about the piece is the way the song moves from the personal to the collective. It starts off as quite an individual thought, and as the instrumentation builds up it starts to feel more like a thought that’s being shared, more like an invitation to others to get involved. A very subtle progression but a very effective one and one that works perfectly with the overall theme of freedom and human collaboration. The link to John Lennon’s “Imagine” is of course in the tradition of the idealistic song. “Let’s Imagine” is in that tradition too, but it’s a very different tradition. It’s a tradition of decentralisation, of autonomy, of the potential for society to be organised through voluntary relationships. It doesn’t just go on about the good old days of the protest songs of the past. It’s trying to bring that spirit of questioning into the present day.
That makes the release in itself a very interesting piece of music. Its identity is in the marriage of a very familiar, very accessible sound with a subject matter which is not one that you see all that often in mainstream songwriting. The end result is a song with a clear point of view and one which you can see the listener having a reason to listen to it. There’s also something very encouraging in the song’s live potential. The reports of audiences lifting their phones up during the shows is testament to the song’s increasingly anthemic structure and its ability to generate a sense of shared excitement. That’s the magic of live music really. A song that starts as an individual idea can quite easily become something that the whole audience can feel. “Let’s Imagine” serves as a reminder that an independent release doesn’t have to take the route of the beaten track to make an impact. It’s a warm acoustic song with a very expressive piano, a solid underlying rhythm and the strings gradually expanding to fill out the soundscape. It’s a very inviting piece of music and gives the central message of the song plenty of space to be heard. “Let’s Imagine” is a very thoughtful, positive piece of music which manages to be both accessible and at the same time quite adventurous in its vision of the world. Its real strength lies in the marriage of an emotionally resonant arrangement with a concept that genuinely makes you think. It doesn’t necessarily provide a solution or a way forward, but it does something that music has always been good at doing; it makes a possibility feel like it’s worth thinking about. If you’re a fan of independent artists with a clear point of view and a sound that’s designed to inspire then this track is definitely one to keep an eye on.
