Buck Rodgers – “The Good Life”
Buck Rodgers – “The Good Life” – Singles Review
That’s RIGHT…one song listed but it’s a singles-review – no typos here, just plain facts!
Buck Rodgers is just getting ready to serve-up a brilliantly rubbery slice of Electro, called “The Good Life” right around the corner on a full-album release on June 6th of this year. If you’re lucky…you’ll get more than one dose of this vibrant & wild cut, just like we have here in the review today. “The Good Life” not only stars the main producer and music-maker Buck Rodgers himself, but the original version features a star-performance from NIQ to lend assistance on the vocals of this club-thumper. We’ve got a little more in store for us here to review, also having access to the “Pill Rmx by Buck Rodgers and Atom Spacifc” – and again, hopefully you’ll be just as fortunate when the release is set loose officially as both versions offer something different from each other and standout in their own unique ways.
What I try not to do is treat my songs like I’m making Sophie’s Choice when there are only two to choose from…the last thing I’d want to imply is that one of these should be tossed over the cliff and the other to live-on. As I mentioned, both versions have merit…and in terms of what you’ll like most it’ll merely come down to personal preference. Couldn’t find any faults within the production or composition from the way Buck Rodgers has assembled these two tracks together as far as I’m concerned.
But! I suppose that personal preference, at least as far as my own ears are concerned…found themselves just slightly more glued to the sparkling, stunning bounce of the original version as opposed to the remix…and of course, YES – I’ll tell you exactly why that is…
For me, it came down to where I felt I could get more of NIQ’s vocals from, which gave the edge to the original. The bright, bold & beautiful sound of her confident vocals fills “The Good Life” with the perfect match for the atmosphere in the music created by Buck Rodgers…irresistible really. I love the part she’s written and how it moves and flows with the vibrant pulse of the music. She’s clearly a professional and seriously confident performer – and she delivers at every moment she’s on the mic throughout “The Good Life.” Lyrically…I’m not so sure that it’s necessarily going to be anything completely new to the ears…but a true ‘club’ tune is almost never going to bring that to the table. The role is really to create something somewhat familiar…something that makes you want to move and dance to that echoes the relatable thoughts & feelings we all think & feel when we hear music like this. So I figure you can look at it one of two ways…either it’s perfectly written for the song, or it just so happens that NIQ understands club-life more than we already know!
In all seriousness, she sounds fantastic and really holds the beat of “The Good Life” together solidly. Smart editing and effects on her vocals, produced by Buck Rodgers of course, make the whole track in its original form pop right out from your speakers with perfect clarity and massive depth in the electro sound of the music surrounding her. Definitely a track that you can hear will not only pack the dance-floor completely – it’s bound to bring that dance-floor to the underneath of your feet wherever you’re standing if you’re within earshot. I’m no kind of dancer…I’ve only got like, HALF of a single-move if any at all…but rest assured, “The Good Life” gets even the uncoordinated-types like ME trying to bust a move, however we can.
NIQ doesn’t completely disappear on “The Good Life (Pill Rmx by Buck Rodgers and Atom Spacifc)” – but the role is significantly reduced in favor of the remix-style treatment that the music takes on in this second version. While it clearly possesses that same bounce and intensity that drives its original…that absence of NIQ takes it a little closer to something found a little more typical of EDM, which again, might work more for you than it did for myself and give the remix that slight edge over the original format. The music becomes more of the star in this remix and the talents of these two producers combined still makes for great entertainment…but for myself, without NIQ leading the way it did feel like at times it was slightly missing that extra spice & layer of flavor that was previously found in the original.
In either format…either way that you get your ears around the song itself…I can’t hear anything stopping it from penetrating your brainwaves and establishing that impact. A solid tune in both its original and remixed form, “The Good Life” is definitely a smart choice as a lead-single and should definitely serve its ambition in getting you excited for the new album coming from Buck Rodgers extremely well for all you electro-music fans out there!
Bound to show up directly where you can find the music on the Lovely Drops record label – which you can find right here: http://www.soundcloud.com/lovelydrops
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