"Across The World" is like a radiant orb of Indie-pop enthusiasm diffusing positive energy out from every rounded edge.
Over interweaving electric guitars, corresponding angelic voices, and a carbonated dance rhythm, CXC's sound lands somewhere between a Lana Del Ray love-project and a revamped St. Lucia.
With their key ethos of writing songs from the heart, it's no surprise the duo's latest single fomenting into a jam-packed hook, with enough unifying emotion and uplifting spirit to make anyone believe they can fly.
When the journey starts, there's a punching 'floor to the floor' pattern held kick drum, which quickly enters into a cadence better suited for dancing—or strutting—as soon as the sprawling hook emerges, rendering-up an apex of sound with which Carmen and Camille's rising vocals take flight over.
"To the jungle, over mountains, into oceans, desert canyons," they sing, like cherubic intoners for the cosmos to hear, working in tandem over the 80s-reminiscent pads that festoon their sonically buzzing backgrounds; oozing with scintillating electric guitars, edgy basslines, and a manifold of twinkling and droning synths.
Carmen and Camille's voices foster an ethereal balance between mystifying and infatuating, swirling in a sinuous fashion and eluding background harmonies as they shapeshift into new silhouettes thanks to kaleidoscopic reverbs that draw-out their melodies tails with a whispering echo.
"Across the World" is a song about rebuilding when falling down and getting back up with new strength to keep moving forward. "Across the world," ushers you between emollient verses with ambient expanses and choruses that erupt over the heart-winning lines, "I'll be back again, I'll be back again, you will see!"
It's a pop-anthem built into compact spritz of carbonated sonics for anyone to get invigorated over, and it arrives from the pure-hearted artists behind the L.A. based coloratura-duo, CXC, so you know it's bound to be good.
Can you run us through the process you took regarding writing, recording "Across the World?" Where did the journey begin, and when did you know it was complete?
Carmen: This song was started at a time when we were traveling a lot. We were playing out and would spend lengths of time away from home and our loved ones but at the same time were meeting a ton of people and loving that as well. It was a time of a lot of goodbyes but so much joy in new experiences. It’s a fun dancey song but underlying there is a sense of the bittersweetness of missing people you care about.
Camille: Especially right now, during a pandemic where traveling and playing live is not really possible, this song brings us back to so many incredible moments of adventure and seeing new places and meeting new people around the world. We miss all of that. Those are experiences that made us the people we are today. But just like this song has a feeling of overcoming distances and obstacles, we know we will get through this too.
What sorts of emotions were you channeling into for the performances you two captured on "Across the World?"
Camille: I think this song encapsulates us as people in a way. It’s fun. We like having fun and are social girls. But there is an underlying depth to it as well. We played this song when we went on tour across America and we always looked forward to playing it. It was definitely the song that we danced to the most with the people in the audience.
Carmen: When we came back from tour we had sung the song so much that we wanted to encapsulate the energy we had felt singing it on stage so we ended up redoing the song. We felt like us as people, artists and vocalists had grown and we wanted the recording to reflect that. Even though this song is one of the older ones on the EP I know I will never get bored of singing it. It brings up too many good memories.
Who played a significant part in your production team for "Across the World"?
Camille: I started this song at our home studio and initially worked on the demo with a producer, but after our tour, we wanted to change things up. Eventually, we brought in two amazing co-producers Ken Hankins (Joy) and Gregg Allen (Taxi Doll) who we worked with on the rest of the EP. You might think that would be a lot of cooks in the kitchen but it has really flowed with them and we all have the things we bring to the table.
Where can you envision your audience listening to "Across the World" for the best-intended experience?
Carmen: Our dream is to be playing this song at Coachella one day. I think it’s the perfect song to listen to at a festival, dancing and singing along under the sun with us. But until that happens, we hope people will want to crank this on road trips, parties, or when they're working out.
If you could give us a few words that would act as an epilogue for the adventure within "Across the World' what would you say?
I think we would say a whirlwind escape that is sultry and exciting but also a little bittersweet.