DOLLY ZOOM’s banging new single ‘Rabbit Hole’ sounds like if you took a cup of synth-pop, added a touch of disco and a heavy pinch of psychedelic, buttered the pan with some mid-2000’s and served with a big dollop of AM radio wavey-ness. Drawing you in with all the familiar musical referencing we know and love, it is still impossible to put your finger on the secret ingredient that makes this four-piece Brisbane band’s sound quite so dreamy.
The descending synth intro lures you into this track, no doubt a nod to Alice’s slippery fall into Wonderland. You’re chasing the synth for the rest of the tune, its trance-like repetitions underpinning each verse. The vocals are lush and melancholic, matching the dense backline and offering moments of respite with soaring descant oo’s and peeps of harmony.
The chorus is a serious two-parter. The vocal hook is short-lived but oh-so catchy. It almost acts as a warm-up for the second half of the chorus; a classically 80’s synth breakdown that has you wanting to boogie in the best arms-up, eye-closed kinda way.
The cherry on top of this song has to be the crunchy, head-banging guitar solo that sets in around the 3-min mark and rides out the rest of the tune. This deliciously indulgent solo feels like a seamless baton pass from the lead vocal, with tasteful licks and distortion that captivate in the same way lyrics do. It wouldn’t be appropriate for a tune with so much synth to end any other way than a fade out, leaving you with the sensation of stepping out of the Gravitron ride at the Theme Park, only this time a lot groovier and a lot less motion sick.
DOLLY ZOOM have a magical way of simultaneously sweeping their audience backwards through a sound wall of familiar genres that almost become irrelevant when they zoom you back towards their unique, collective sound. The 4-min 15-seconds has your ears wanting to wonder off with each individual synth lick or guitar slide, but ultimately, you can’t escape the uber-enticing ‘Rabbit Hole’.