Petit Biscuit’s “Sunset Lover (Orchestral)”

Chugging out of the silence with a lusty charge that is rooted in classical aggression, the deluge of strings that adorn every beat in Petit Biscuit’s “Sunset Lover (Orchestral)” go unmatched and unrivaled this August (and unless there’s a drastic twist of fate for operatic and orchestral pop music this fall, they could go unbeaten as the decade comes to a close).  

The harmonies are righteous in this concept single from Petit Biscuit, a premier independent musician who has been getting a lot of press attention lately – though all of the hype hasn’t come without just cause. “Sunset Lover (Orchestral)” might be everything its name would suggest; a pop single that has little in common with the non-elaborately designed fodder we’ve heard from his major label counterparts this season, but its adherence to barebones aesthetics and an unfanciful, filler-free ethos is why I’ve become as enamored with it as I have recently. Petit Biscuit is playing for the sake of playing, and while he’s still got a lot to prove to the establishment, he’s going a long way toward attracting a dedicated fan base with the release of this track.

There’s a strong progressive feel to “Sunset Lover (Orchestral)” that is difficult to ignore even in casual listens. Slowly, the song blossoms from a moderate stomp into an awesomely ethereal number while adding a few subtle harmonies along the way. Petit Biscuit gets out of the first movement and immediately flips the switch on us as he manipulates the tone with a freeform tempo that syncs up with the vicious churn of the imagery in the video for the song perfectly. Before pointing us towards the exit, the track breaks apart into an atmospheric piece for a second, as if to freeze-frame everything that’s just transpired so we can study the context of what Petit Biscuit is trying to tell us here.  

We round out the song in a fading tizzy of fireworks, and I must admit that when the silence finally overtakes the melodies, it’s tempting to play “Sunset Lover (Orchestral)” all over again. The eruption of youthful excitement binds all of the varying parts together in this single, and even though it’s quite an emotive instrumental composition, I don’t get the impression that it was designed exclusively to get this artist into steady rotation within the YouTube algorithm.  

I wasn’t aware of what Petit Biscuit sounded like before I got ahold of the original “Sunset Lover (Orchestral),” and in the time since I’ve come to expect quite a lot. He’s got none of the jitters that I’ve gotten used to when it comes to this kind of concept piece, and it makes me wonder how good he’s going to be in the future if he’s already this proficient at the present. Time will tell for sure, but judging from the road he’s on right now, I think that there’s a good chance we’ll be hearing more hits from this fledgling star musician and arranger much sooner than later.  

Mindy McCall