A Secret Love: Zero 7

I can’t hide it any longer.

I have a secret lover.

It’s name is Zero 7.

We’ve been together for several months now.

We met all because of Sex and The City re-runs.

It was love at first sight.

And now?  We’re inseparable.

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For those of you somewhat disturbed by my love, fear not. Zero 7, in all its beautiful glory, is actually a “styled duo made up of Britains Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker”.

Their music?  Sinfully beautiful.  I received one of their albums, Simple Things, for my birthday a couple of months ago and I’ve been in even more love than before.

Whilst their style and genre of music ranges heavily, a lot of it ranges around Jazz-like melodies with interspersed reflection-type music.  It’s easy listening at its best, though this easy-listening conjures scenes in your mind without you realising.

Take one of their songs, “Destiny”, for example.  In true Zero 7 style, the song features two outside artists: Sia Furler and Sophie Barker.  Within the song is beauty.

Beauty in the fact that, much like with Lily Allen, the song contains a rapturous mix of upbeat mix layered with meaning.  Yet, at the same time, there’s a spherical sense of “does the deep meaning matter?” within the song.   My favourite part of “Destiny”, undoubtedly, is the lyrics “I’m watching porn in my hotel dressing gown”.  There’s no smuttiness or crudeness in its delivery.  It’s poised.  Practiced.  Perfected.

Another song, “End Theme”, is irony encapsulated.  You’ll find no surprise upon the fact that “End Theme” comes at the end of the album, and quite literally feels like the exact same music you’d hear at the end of a film.  I smile at this.  Within it lies a certain sense of subtlety.

Naturally, as with every album, there are a couple of songs which just don’t jive with me.  That’s a partial lie.  There is a total of one song which doesn’t really jive with me.  Here’s proof:

As you can see, the song “Out of Town” sits wrongly with me.  I can’t place it.  There’s just something about it that feels… wrong.  Grating.  It’s okay, though, because there are 11 other songs which I feel are almost from the divine.

Likufanele is only a 3-star because it was one of those “OHMYGODLOVEATFIRSTLISTEN” songs but then I over-listened and now I’m a bit ‘meh’ about it.

Final thoughts?

Why you might love Zero 7

• Easy-Listening music which holds meaning underneath.

• A range of styles all fitted on top of one another.

• Their songs hold very subtle senses of irony, which makes them quite fun to pay attention to.

• They aren’t manufactured-pop, so their songs hold quite a lot of character.

Why you might not like Zero 7

• Your friends won’t have heard of Zero 7 — or at least, the majority won’t have.

• You can’t dance to Zero 7’s music.

• You might want something with more beats per bar.

• Their songs won’t do the thinking for you.  You have to figure them out.  Though, they’re not all that hard to work out.