Spotlights – Love & Decay

Music is a universal tune

People listen to music for various reasons. Perhaps people want to escape from what life has brought them, or the music provides them a sense of peace and unity while listening. The band Spotlights was formed in Brooklyn, New York during the year of 2014 and earlier this year the band released a new album titled Love & Decay. The album follows after the band’s success of their 2017 album Seismic.

Husband and wife Susan and Mario Quintero both provide the guitar and vocal on the album and Chris Eriquez plays the drums. All three do a fantastic job on this record as they are able to blend the sounds of their instruments and vocals to craft a unique style of music. The theme on the album seems to be universal because of the way the band uses synthesizers to create a mystical feeling for the listeners. This album is beautiful due to how the music creates an intense and dark atmosphere which provides listeners a feeling of insecurity toward the music.

One of the songs which display uniqueness is the song titled “Xerox” and the reason why it is a unique song is because of the sound of the music. At the beginning of the song, the guitars and the drum provide a welcoming deep tune. Mario’s guitar skills are dynamic on this song as his style of guitar playing provides an electric vibe and his guitar solo toward the end of the song provides a magic touch metal music fans yearn for. Susan’s bass guitar skills are unique because of how she is able to match the tune while playing the bass guitar on a higher guitar tune. When listening, her bass guitar can be heard low rumbling to a high pitched tune. This rumbling from her bass guitar provides the feeling of the song. Eriquez’s drumming impacts the song in a positive way because his drumming skills welcome the listeners at the beginning of the song and he is able to drum heavy beats and then switch to a lighter beat at the same time. Also, his drum solo toward the end of the song shows how passionate Eriquez is when it comes to creating music. Despite not knowing what the lyrics in the song are about, Susan’s and Mario’s vocals on this track blend in well with the music and their vocals provide the sense of power to the track because of how well both singers can match the tune from the instruments with their lofty vocals.

Another song which displays creativity is called  “Far From Falling’’ and this song is rather different from “Xerox” because of how deep the track is at the beginning of the song. The sound of the guitar filled with an electric vibe can be heard and the bass guitar hums quietly until Mario plays the intro. The bass guitar can be heard playing deep vibrant rumbles in the background and the drums are being played at a rhythmic beat. What is surprising in this song is how the music transitions from a high pitched dark tune to a lighter tune and perhaps the reason why the music is being played in different transitions is that the vocals need to blend with the music. With the lighter musical tune, the vocals sing the lyrics in a low tune and toward the end of the song, the band shows how crafty they are with their instruments.  Mario’s guitar solo is dynamic on this track as it provides a universal tone which can leave listeners pondering on what his statement his while he performed his guitar solo. Susan does not have a guitar solo in the song but her crafty bass guitar skills can be heard playing beautiful music while Mario does his solo. Eriquez’s drumming is subtle because he is able to play the drums on a relatable beats and he has a small and impactful drum solo where he starts the song before the guitarists.

A song titled “The Particle Noise” is a rather interesting song because of how the lead guitar plays a repeatable tune at the beginning of the song and there is no doubt how the band wanted to open the song with a high pitched guitar sound which is followed by a collaboration of the bass guitar and drums. The tune Susan and Enriquez contribute to the song provides light within the dark serenity of the guitar and the vocals on this track are sweet because it provides the listeners of how universal music is. What is unique about the song is how Mario uses a synthesizer to set the mystical mood. The song sounds dimensional because of how the band creates a universal theme and based on the lyrics, the song could be about love. Perhaps the song is about two people who have a feeling of being in a different part of the atmosphere this song feels like it is a love story about those two people falling in love with each other and the love they share brings them to another universe.

Overall, Spotlights made a wonderful album that is filled with promising rock/metal music. If fans loved Seismic then they will enjoy Love & Decay. Who knows, maybe the album could encourage fans to find their own dimensions within their universe.

Cait Stoddard: Hello! My name is Caitlin and my job is writing music news stories and reviewing metal music albums. I enjoy collecting vinyl, playing video games, watching movies and going to concerts.
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