MARBLE RAFT - Marble Halls

On Rotation: Marble Raft - "Marble Halls"

"Marble Halls" off of Marble Raft is some kind of dream-pop sorcery.

Some songs don't just play; they transport you. Marble Halls, the latest single from Marble Raft, is one of those tracks. It feels like a dream in which nostalgia and modernity whip around, merge, and then change into something quite familiar, yet out of this world.

Marble Halls is a sonic masterpiece, the third single off of their forthcoming album Dear Infrastructure. Weightless, it floats between the sheen of synths and the warm strum of twelve-string guitars swathed in celestial glow courtesy of glockenspiel and sweeping soundscapes-really something quite beautiful in and of itself-a truly wondrous, achingly sublime duet with soaring male/female vocals literally dancing across this slow and weightless arrangement, so fragile it's hauntingly mesmerizing.

This track captures lyrically and sonically the faded grandeur of abandoned marble halls now a quiet echo of the past, a wistfulness elevated to beautiful proportions by an unusual 5/4 time signature in use here, which makes it hypnotic and off-kilter in rhythm-a factor that only further draws one deep into its spell.

Marble Raft took Marble Halls on a special journey: dreamy, richly layered, and texturally full of pure emotion. Well, if one has ever needed any kind of proof that organic instruments and digital soundscapes could merge into something magical, here it is. Better yet, put the track on, close your eyes, and let it do the talking.