Francis and the Lights - “Night Watchman” from A Modern Promise (self-released)

so i definitely haven’t been getting back into regular posting.  i think i’m saving it all up for year-end to be honest.  but this is an important, time-sensitive post, because francis is giving away all his released music plus extras on his website for the next five or so days.

i got super hooked on this song a while ago along with the rest of this ep (it’s really different from the other ep, which i’m not crazy about).  francis is something of an 80s pop synthesist—common namechecks include prince, phil collins, peter gabriel, maybe even a little hall and oates.  as far as i can tell there’s nothing ironic about his musical approach; the only weirdness on “night watchman” comes from the zombified backing vocals.  otherwise he’s a a guy with a good voice who has written a few nice songs and will hopefully write some more.  oh, also he either knows people or has a really good publicist or both—his web presence is “mysterious” and hilarious.