If you paid attention to our writings last year, you had a chance to read a few lines about Books Of Moods, an outstanding French band based in Paris. Their music shines with numerous qualities rarely found in modern indie bands nowadays, thanks to their exceptional songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing abilities. “Fashion Romance,” their first piece of work this year, exemplifies their tremendous dedication to the craft. It’s not only an indie song for the sake of the indie genre, but a fine piece of sonic artistry that goes way beyond that particular musical universe. As you deep dive into the song’s core, you’ll notice how these clever musicians incorporated all those fundamental elements of indie rock and indie pop, but also left plenty of room for other different yet complementary music genres like art rock, psychedelic rock, power pop, and other similar styles. Their experimentation resulted in a luxuriant soundscape, adorned with magical vocal harmonies, sonic maneuvers, and rhythmic patterns, calm, soothing, relaxing, yet groovy and energetic just enough, forcing you to swing and dance to every melodic shift and beat. Each decision made throughout every segment of this marvelous piece demonstrates their tremendous dedication to the craft, but also their willingness to break all the rules and shapeshift the boundaries of the genre while simultaneously staying true to the roots.
And one of the details that sets Books Of Moods apart from other contemporaries is the vocal performance. The way female and male vocalists switch and levitate throughout the entire composition gives “Fashion Romance” that storytelling, poetic quality, like a really good story revealed gradually with every upcoming segment. Both vocalists understand each other perfectly, to the point where their vocals swirl together harmoneously, adding that nearly psychedelic quality that unquestionably decorates the entire composition. The astonishing balance between low, mid, and high notes decorates all the sections and orchestrations with such precision and finesse without being too flashy or overwhelming. Books Of Moods exemplify how excellent vocal performances can elevate a song’s structure to an entirely new level, making it a cathartic experience worth revisiting. But the vocals are not the only detail that brings psychedelic properties upfront. Quite the contrary, the brilliantly assembled interplay between synths and guitars creates addictive, hypnotic, ethereal, otherworldly soundscape that immediately transports you into different realm. The band keeps these instrumentations so subtle yet vividly hearable, offering delicate leads, themes, pads, and ambiance on one side and delicate chord progresions, harmonies, and melodies on the other. These interplays continuously levitate between warm, tender, ear-appealing lows to more dominant, commanding, notable highs. Books Of Moods mastered tension and release, push and pull, a difference between tenderness and groove, creating not only a calm modern indie song, but an entire musical voyage.
Beneath those beautiful vocal harmonies and lush orchestrations, there are noticeable, intricate, warm-sounding basslines, rumbling around and offering more power, detail, heaviness, clarity, and depth while simultaneously acting as a binding element that glues the mentioned instrumentations with rhythmic patterns. The bass guitar plays a signifiant role in this composition, mainly because it offers more groove without being overly volumed up. Instead, it sits perfectly in the mix, resonating with all those complex low-ends and supporting each piece of this sonic puzzle immensely. In the meantime, the exceptional drumming performance based upon moderate beats, breaks, fills, accentuations, and other percussive acrobatics keeps the remainder of the band in line while dictating groove and pace. Each segment arrives with those wisely assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated rhythmic patterns, ensuring that the entire song structure stays solid like a rock. As you can see, Books Of Moods thought about everything while writing and composing their latest standalone single. “Fashion Romance” exemplifies how indie music should sound in 2026. It carries everything you dearly love about this longstanding music genre, yet offers all those additional sonic delicacies, hidden gems, sonic maneuvers, and tiny nuances, making this beautiful composition even more appealing to the ears. Books Of Moods proved that indie music can sound like a eye-peeling painting or a good theatre play, transformed into a musical form. It’s a masterpiece that you’ll gladly include on your playlists. Therefore, head to your favorite streaming platform and check it out.
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