TESS - Shooting Stars

Shooting Stars has a hook that feels borrowed from a song you already love, which is either great writing or slightly suspicious, and I’ve stopped caring which. TESS turns in a piece of polished mainstage dance for Spinnin that knows exactly what it is: a hands-in-the-air festival moment, and proud of it. The vocal is bright and a little melancholy at the same time, riding over a plucky lead that builds to a drop at 1:15 that’s basically a fireworks display in audio form. It’s not subtle, and it isn’t pretending to be — but there’s real craft in making something this immediate without it curdling into cheese, and TESS threads that needle. The production is buffed to the point of being almost frictionless, every element slotted precisely into place. I can’t pretend this is deep, but I had it stuck in my head through an entire grocery run, which is its own kind of achievement. Dance music this direct lives or dies on the melody, and this melody survives contact. It’ll be all over festival sets by August.

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