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Chris Bottomley
Summer (download track)
(independent) - 2022
Michael Panontin
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Chris Bottomley's latest single is the perfect tune for those warm Indian summer days (fingers crossed). It is an effortlessly carefree track, with rich acoustic guitar and sweeping orchestral arrangements throughout, and a definite departure from the dense funk and reggae workouts Bottomley is known for.
"'Summer' started out with me doodling around with the opening chords of the song on my Telecaster," the ex-Tulpa bassist and current Brainfudge frontman told CM. "Those beginning chords led to the other chords through trial and error, and I soon figured out an arrangement that made it all come together. I always heard the electric rhythm guitar part as an acoustic part, making the song more mellow and warm, so I ended up using both on the recording."
Bottomley wisely handed the track over to Bryden Baird to orchestrate ("I knew he had a huge palette of sounds and experience to draw from"). Baird, a multi-instrumentalist whose studio credits are too numerous to list but include the likes of the Sadies, the Hylozoists and Feist, added strings and horns transforming an otherwise intimate bit of folk into a soaring, majestic, near-perfect track.
Lyrically, Bottomley sings of love while evoking the languorous charm of a "beautiful drive" through the rolling valleys north of Toronto ("Driving through Beaver Valley / On our way to Georgian Bay / It's you and me together / Nothing can stand in our way"). His singing may be gentle but it always stays on the right side of twee, and I'm guessing to some it will be a bittersweet reminder of his late brother John's fragile voice. Chris will no doubt agree.
"I think this one's a song my brother John would have loved."
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