Single Review: Blue to Grey

Jaggers x Ska are a Dunedin duo made up of Ridge Jaggers (drums, bass, keyboard, production) and Skalisko (guitar, keyboards, bass, vocals). Blue to Grey is a dark disco-tinged goth pop song that sounds like it would play at the gates of purgatory in a David Lynch movie.

The steady, restrained groove throughout the song conjures an image of a 3-piece band dressed all in white playing drums, bass and keyboard next to a service elevator in a hotel laundry. There’s a really catchy vocal melody made up of “hey na” that makes it feel both diegetic and like an overlaid soundtrack to a montage that could have been in Eagle vs Shark.

I swear to God when I first listened to the verse was delivered in guttural growls, but now it sounds like adult contemporary croons somewhere between Peter Murphy and Air. I feel like I’m going insane. The chorus repeats: “blue turns to grey.”

There’s a cool little part where the beat stomps a few times right before the vocal hook kicks in again and I feel carried off into a bed of clouds by the fade out.

The way the bass undulates is hypnotic and the vocal delivery begs for the video to feature a singer super imposed over whatever else it decides to be about. It’s also perfect for a haunted basement carpark full of people that don’t know they’re dead.