‘You Can Turn It Off’ is the second single from ‘End Codes’, the forthcoming album from Dan Carney aka Astronauts.
Following reasonably warmly on the heels of February’s Hype Machine chart-bothering lead single ‘Civil Engineer’, ‘You Can Turn It Off’ is arguably a subtler affair, a plaintive, plinking question mark of a song. Ornately layered “Crosby, Stills & Nash via the Thames Estuary” vocal harmonies swirl soothingly over a simple glockenspiel-and-piano-augmented progression. Like all of Dan’s best stuff, it’s melodically satisfying, memorable, and slightly psychically unsettling, the repeated assertion that, whatever happens, “you can take it all away, you can turn it off” imbuing the gently optimistic chord changes and airy, reflective feel with a compelling ambiguity.
It’s backed by an absolutely stunning remix from Dan’s label-mates Grasscut. The electronica/post-rock duo bend the original into a gloriously undulating epic, with toy box chimes, woozy percussion, and gorgeous strings gradually gathering into a pulsing, imaginative backdrop for a lovingly re-edited vocal.