There’s something everyone’s missing. Most of the time, people don’t think about it. But when it’s quiet at night and they’re by themselves, or they’re alone in their room, it calls to them. They want to get back to the way things were: a more innocent time, a peaceful mood, a period of tranquility and quiet self-possession. It dances, and tantalizes, just beyond their grasp. But when the vibe is right, they’re sure that they can get it back.
That’s a common experience, and one that Zimmer90 captures to the root on “feel like we used to.” The new track from the German indie pop band is, on its surface, comforting — but the sweetness of the music can’t disguise the ferocious desire to return to a gentler state of being. The tension between the beauty of the arrangement and the thirst to recover something from the past gives this otherwise winsome song its irresistible drive and quiet drama. The musicians in Zimmer90 and award-winning songwriter and co-producer Tobias Kuhn (Milky Chance, Jeremy Loops, Annett Louisan, many others) have crafted a track where every sound works as an auditory metaphor for longing: the throbbing, near-tactile bass, the breathy harmony vocals, the soft warble of the organ chords and the synthesizer line that wraps around the chorus melody like a shawl.
The new single follows “What Love Is,” a midsummer release that quickly established the duo as a TikTok success story. The track was simultaneously danceable and meditative, and it introduced listeners to the distinctive Zimmer90 sonic palette: warm bottom end, airy synth and propulsive drums, and ethereal, angelic vocals that seem to float above the mix. Though the video for “What Love Is” was homemade — just two musicians playing together in an apartment studio — it’s already been streamed a quarter of a million times on YouTube.
For the “feel like we used to” clip, they’ve retained the intimacy and camaraderie of their debut video. But they’ve opened the doors and let their friends in, and they’ve polished the footage so that it matches the production quality of the recording. The members of Zimmer90 are on an idyllic trip in the woods with four other attractive people — it’s a beautiful day, and everybody seems delighted to be where they are. Is this the state of affairs that they’d like to get back to? If so, it’s not hard to understand why they’re so ready to turn back the clock.
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