Vanic found the ache in Babydoll and cranked it up until it’s the only thing left. Dominic Fike’s original is a woozy, sun-damaged little pop song about anxiety, and Vanic keeps the vulnerability but hangs it on a bigger frame, chopping the vocal and floating it over a beat that swells where the original just strummed. Vanic has made a career out of exactly these remixes, taking indie-leaning songs and giving them a widescreen electronic makeover without steamrolling what made them work. The trick here is restraint: he could have buried Fike under a wall of synths and instead he leaves lots of air, letting the hook breathe before the drop lifts it skyward. When that drop comes it’s more melancholy than euphoric, a bittersweet lift that fits the lyric better than a harder edit would. I keep the original in rotation and this now sits right next to it, two moods of the same song. It’s the rare remix that makes you want to go back and hear what it was built from. Fike should send him a fruit basket.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.