Oh Buddy!’s new single, “On and On,” feels like a sense that stretches and circulates where time stands still. It’s not just the production scale or the finely wrought vocals, and it’s the emotional heft of a song that sounds like it’s been extracted from the middle of a dream. The American alt-pop duo, comprised of Chase Bader and Conor Kelly, is no novice to creating all-consuming experiences, but in “On and On,” they’ve found something even more profound.
This track is not just an expansion in their musical trajectory but a transitional moment, as the duo describes it. It’s a creative rebirth. There’s a new kind of vulnerability here, a willingness to embrace emotional honesty as openly as possible. And you feel it. From its opening bars, “On and On” cradles you like a lost memory, the sort that can come swooping back when the world falls silent.
The lyrics land with a gentle but jarring impact as they trace love that’s too grand to contain but also not capable of being released. It’s a feeling many of us know, that immense kind of connection full of light and longing. Lines float like headlights on the wet blacktop, light tracing a thin glimmer over heartbreak, over hope, over the gorgeous in between. The song “On and On” is cinematic, a credit to the duo’s capacity for creating emotional architecture out of sound. There is an innocence at work, a sort of melodic marvel that keeps the track feeling airy and human even at its most grand moments.
“On and On” is an enticement to loosen up, feel harder, and be carried away by something larger than ourselves. And that’s why Oh Buddy! is so captivating. They don’t just write songs but create worlds. This track is a tantalizingly new move for the duo, and if this is the kind of art that comes free when the ceiling breaks, then we’re in for a treat.
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