LadyDot Review: Dance Alone

A Swing Hop that will swing you at the end of summer. LVDS & Gayle Skidmore – “Dance Alone”

I’m sure many of you have had this situation before: you haven’t seen your friend for a very long time. You were afraid that when you finally met, you wouldn’t find many interesting topics to talk about and nothing would be the same as before. Later, you realise that you haven’t been in touch for several months.

Eventually you manage to arrange a meeting and… there is still something to talk about! Imagine that I had that with the work of LVDS. I was under the impression that I had quite recently written a review of his single. Then I realised it was… at the beginning of January (it was the track ‘Wonderful You’ – you can read my review HERE)!

However, I still have something to write about, as the latest single from LVDS, which he has created with superb vocalist Gayle Skidmore, is downright amazing. Get carried away by this slightly melancholic swing hop tune and discover ‘Dance Alone’ with me!

Gayle Skidmore and her Electro Swing debut

As you are well aware, Electro Swing has been evolving a lot recently. More and more singers are starting to experiment with this musical genre. This is exactly what happened with Gayle Skidmore. When I started looking for information about this artist, I found out that she is multi-talented, has a really impressive musical output and has won a lot of awards throughout her career. She is also a songwriter (as you can guess, the lyrics to ‘Dance Alone’ are also by her) and… a multi-instrumentalist. Gayle plays over twenty instruments – a number I find absolutely astonishing!

Back to ‘Dance Alone’. If I hadn’t looked up the name of the artist who sings on this track beforehand, I think I might have been fooled into thinking it was Sonia Elisheva after the first few notes – after all, LVDS likes working with her so much! However, just a moment later my doubts are dispelled – it’s a completely different tone of voice. I hear a whole host of different emotions in this soulful vocal: a little bit of sorrow, a little bit of sadness, a little bit of hope, a little bit of melancholy and at the same time confidence and self-awareness.

Gayle mesmerises with her uniqueness, makes me think and at the same time makes every line of the lyrics of ‘Dance Alone’ reach my heart so quickly. And makes you realise that you don’t have to feel alone when you’re alone with yourself. It’s really beautiful.

Somewhere I found a statement from Gayle, who wrote about how Electro Swing has always lifted her spirits. I hope that ‘Dance Alone’ will also be such a beautiful, hopeful ballad for many people.

STREAM & LISTEN HERE

LVDS – an artist who needs no introduction

You already know him quite well, as he has been sharing his brilliant Electro Swing and swing hop compositions with us for two years now. However, I have to say that ‘Dance Alone’ is probably the most peaceful, melancholic song by LVDS. The subdued, simple beat works perfectly here. It combines wonderfully with the amazing guitar, the sound of which simply delights me. Yes, that guitar (apart from Gayle’s wonderful vocals of course, which flow along with that whole beat), impressed me the most.

Somewhere in the background, I can hear the subtle tapping of the piano keyboard – everything is so delicate, sentimental… After a few plays of ‘Dance Alone’, I noticed the still enchanting sound of the violin. Really, I can’t stop enjoying this song… However, there’s one thing that totally surprised me here – in most of his swing hop songs, LVDS still adds a trumpet. This time he didn’t. But would a trumpet-played melody actually be necessary here? In my opinion, it could fit, although the longer I think about it, perhaps then there would already be too many elements in this song.

And yet, it is all about the simplicity of the message, the feeling of that unique vibe and enjoying every moment of the end of summer – warming up in the sunshine, listening to the sound of the waves, the light breeze on the body. For this is precisely the atmosphere I associate ‘Dance Alone’ with.

Written & reviewed by LadyDot (Ja, Wizeruk) Date: 2022-08-22

Bio – LadyDot

Anna (LadyDot) was born in ’94, but always felt she came from the Golden Twenties. “Polka” in Polish means “girl from Poland”, so she’s “Polka in polka dots”. She loves vintage style and spontaneous travels around Europe. But her greatest love (apart from her husband) is of course music, especially Electro Swing.

On her own Blog www.jawizeruk.pl she writes about various music genres. She is a copywriter, so writing is her strong point. Anna likes singing (not only in the shower!) and cooking (especially Italian and Hungarian cuisine).