“Alight” is acoustic folk pretending to be psychedelia, and the disguise keeps slipping at exactly the right moments. Beneath the synth shimmer and extended guitar drones sits an intimate song with a clear melodic spine. Bass and drums maintain a heavy forward pulse, while guitar drones and synth tones move in longer phrases above it.

I liked how clearly the track separates steady rhythm from drifting texture. Working through Light Travels Faster Than Sound, Adam Bowman organises the collaboration around sounds moving at different speeds. Synth details appear in quick flashes, guitar tones continue across the spaces between vocal phrases, and the rhythm section advances in firm, regular steps. Those different durations keep the accumulated layers readable and give each element individual character.

Dominic Parker’s falsetto reaches the point where singing and crying begin to share the same breath. Higher notes grow increasingly fragile beside the steadiness of the rhythm section. Calling “Alight” a love song almost understates its sadness. Affection arrives tangled with exhaustion, and the vocal turns closeness into something painful to sustain. By the middle, romance has receded and an emotional collapse has taken its place.

Somewhere during those anxious high notes and suspended guitar haze, Radiohead entered my head. The Sympathy Of All Things preserves a melody that leads clearly through the arrangement, with experimentation adding colour while the song retains its shape. Calling it “a listenable Radiohead” may qualify as a cheap joke; it also describes my reaction with embarrassing accuracy. Even the title participates in the tension: “Alight” can suggest ignition, illumination or descent onto a surface. The synths provide the flicker, the guitars create the blur and the rhythm section handles the landing. The song keeps reaching upward while its emotional weight presses downward.

As the first release since AMARGI, “Alight” makes collaboration productive at the level of pressure. Bowman surrounds the vocal with increasing motion, and The Sympathy Of All Things responds by singing with greater fragility. The arrangement grows fuller while the performance moves closer to breaking. The love song reaches its peak through exhaustion, with one voice trying to hold pitch and composure at the same time.

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