A short Dark Stranger – Pale Blue Dot (2025)
Self-described as the “premier purveyor of poetic, provocative, pumping power-pop… or at least in Leeds”, UK-based A short Dark Stranger melds dapper-ness and debauchery in silvery, sarcastic, defiant reems of music. Despite his rumbunctious revelry having turned heads for several years, this is The Other Side Reviews’ introduction to this stranger. Join us as we delve into his most recent EP, Pale Blue Dot.
Following his 2020 EP, Popaganda, A short Dark Stranger returns to the streaming world with the four-track Pale Blue Dot. Self-recorded, composed and produced, the EP is a rollercoaster ride through various realms of synth-pop and indie-pop. Old-school with the silvery synth-pop twinkle of the 1980s, you can feel yourself dancing along on those four-colour disco dancefloors, grinning from ear to ear. Yet, as much as Pale Blue Dot shimmers with the kaleidoscopic bounce of yesteryear, A short Dark Stranger’s enthusiasm is ideal for contemporary audiences.
Joined by Alice Nicholls, the opening title track brims with that dancefloor-busting feeling and disco sound, but the bounce wafts off into the ether with the second track, ‘You’d Be Lost Without Me’. Psychedelic and tinted with eerie haunting, there is an airiness to the track… then again, that’s only what A short Dark Stranger wants you to think. As the song progresses, the simple sonic haze quickly crescendos to more than shimmering keyboards – enter crashing bangs, a head-whipping beat, and even some crickets chirping bound in an avant-garde sound that is not for the faint-hearted.
As you sit back from the bold statement of how your world will crumble without A short Dark Stranger in ‘You’d Be Lost Without Me’, the avant-garde alternative-pop quality continues in ‘Low (Solo)’. Finding a balance between colourful synthetic and organic instruments, ‘Low (Solo)’ is that gut-clenching, spine-shivering teetering across a rugged terrain that you really aren’t sure about but feel the need to explore.
From its opening track, Pale Blue Dot is a contemporary soundtrack to the chaos of reality – its complexities, its tumultuousness, its tragedy, but also its resilience, strength and empowering transition. Ending with the instrumental ‘How Do You Find Your Way Back In The Dark?’, the rollercoaster ride comes to a relaxing end led by the twinkling synths. It’s like a comedown after madness and release back into your existence.
So, what do I think of Pale Blue Dot? Not for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure. If you’re looking for something samesy and gentle, then look elsewhere because A short Dark Stranger is anything but gentle and repetitive.
Find out more about A short Dark Stranger on his about.me, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, Bandcamp and Spotify.
