Establishing the mood with the sound of rising police sirens, JFK Blue opens Restless City with intrigue before expanding with a sublime saxophone, Hammond organ and textured drums to create a cohesive blues-meets-classic-rock sound.
The opus evolves with gritty and captivating vocals from lead singer and guitarist Stef as he shares situational, thought-provoking prose. He is then joined by singer Rebecca Downes who adds layers and a dominant presence on the second verse. The guitar work is exceptional and we deeply connect with the poetic prose and the concept of the song.
In essence, the lyrics paint a vivid picture of a restless and broken city, people with fevered minds and a dark energy which actually feels highly zeitgeist. The track could be featured in a movie like Sin City, or an episode of Euphoria on HBO when Cassie moves to LA. We could also imagine it in the recent Oscar-winning film, One Battle After Another.
Speaking on the message of the song, JFK Blue says, “The inspiration was a dystopian reflection on society today, it’s a bit Orwell meets Blade Runner set to music. You’ve only got to see the news, scroll social media and the society we see inspired the rather dark feel to this song.”
On the creative process, JFK Blue adds, “Over the years we have used lots of recording studios, big and small, for this, our second album, from which this is the first release, we wanted something intimate, yet could create the soundscapes we wanted. It took a while, but we found a home in Bonafide Studios in the leafy suburb of Muswell Hill in North London, Brian, who helped not only engineer the track but produced and mixed it was no idle participant, he made us work hard and it’s what we needed to create some really great music, We know that bands as varied as The Kooks [and] Bill Bruford have recorded there but it was the vibe that we really liked.”
The vocal climax is followed by an epic guitar solo and saxophone reprise which are truly transcendental and lead us through to the closing moments of the song. Needless to say, we are in awe, and have added Restless City to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TIMELESS playlist, whilst we continue to stream the wider discography of JFK Blue, including Should Have Been There, and Shadowlands.