After a phenomenally successful year which has seen Sam Scherdel secure support slots for Two Door Cinema Club and receive critical acclaim from across the board, Sheffield’s indie rock spearhead has delivered another hit of exhilarant romanticism with his latest single, R.E.T.R.O. If the waves Scherdel makes with his ear for euphoric earworms get any bigger, we’ll all need to seek higher ground.
The retrospective take on gratitude is a stunning attestation to our proclivity towards tenderly holding the past while struggling to amass sentimentality for the present. The sepia hues of nostalgia will always bring rose-tinted light in our darkest hours, but as much as we want to re-manifest the past, as Scherdel did so sonically consummately with the shimmering new wave pop nuances atop his signature Springsteen-esque indie rock grooves, us mere mortals are confined to the present.
“R.E.T.R.O. was written in 2021 after the initial lockdowns. It’s a bittersweet pop record which contains the message to appreciate what you have whilst you have it, as the moment it’s gone is the moment it hurts.”
With producer Gavin Monaghan (Editors, Robert Plant, Paolo Nutini), the singer-songwriter who always knows exactly which melodically electrifying buttons to press to evoke deep emotion, demonstrated his versatility without watering down the authentic alchemy barely contained in his previous releases.
R.E.T.R.O. turned back the airwaves on October 6; stream it on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast