Slowly creeping out of the darkness and taking shape under the command of a sterling beat, Lucky Harmon’s new single and music video “Party Life” is instrumentally clandestine at the onset of its jam but inevitably turns into a tidal wave any club kid would be happy to get swept away by. Far more electronic in tone than it is pop, Lucky Harmon’s latest release is a departure from the sugary melodicism of his output in the 2010s and a foray into the experimental world of neo-electropop, it’s absolutely some of the most evocative content I’ve heard in the month of December.

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Everything in this song and its video is built off of the groove. The shots in the video reflect the uncompromising strut of the beat like nothing else could have, while the vocal frequently stretches out the percussion-born tension longer than it ever should be – just for the fun of it. Lucky Harmon doesn’t care if some critics would regard the aesthetic here as just too indulgent for the mainstream; much to my delight, it would appear he’s being excessive on purpose as to exploit a simple hook for everything it’s worth and then some. Is it rebellious? Of course, but so is anything you should be listening to right now.

A track that was made with club-goers as the primary target audience but nonetheless sounds sexy to anybody with a sense of adventure, Lucky Harmon’s “Party Life” is another reason to see what the hype surrounding this artist has really been all about. Joined by Bboy Fidget but dominating the mix with his own melodic lashing, this singer and songwriter has decided that making pop music his way is the right path for him, and for what I look for in the genre’s contemporary sound, his is one I want even more of.

John McCall