Thursday February 24, 2022
As Lark’s biography declares, ‘If you want to label it, it’s a Miami Beach party vibe through the feel of early Madonna to end up in the good times zone of Dua Lipa and J.Lo’. And that is actually a pretty decent sum-up of Lark’s music.
With years of experience behind her, playing in bands and no doubt the usual club, bar, cover band grind, Lark has stepped forth, and into the dance-pop realm with a style—in her writing and her vocal performances—that seems to be endlessly malleable and effortlessly pliant. On this latest track Lark has adopted more J.Lo heat than early Madonna vibes, though both influences are still discernible.
As Lark has said about the new release, ‘Hit the Record was written and recorded at Wizard of OG Studios in Los Angeles, California, over a bowl of Ollie Gabriel’s world-famous Louisiana gumbo. The song was written in 45 minutes, the framework laid down for what would become a delicious sonic gumbo of Latin, pop, and dance.’ Stripped of all those stylistic accoutrements, Hit the Record is nonetheless a straight-out pop tune, with a structure that veers from low to high to low again at just the right pace and with the necessary balance between surprise and expectation.
As Lark says about the track’s lyric, ‘We can all identify with a past relationship where you just wanted to stick it to em’ one last time. Hit the Record is that song. A blast from the past, one last chance, then it’s gone forever.’ Written by Lark and produced by LA-based producer Ollie Gabriel (John Legend, Pink, Mel B, Keke Wyatt, Jennifer Lopez, and The Backstreet Boys), over the opening crackle of DJ vinyl, Lark reclaims her power.
The track is a rallying cry for girls making good, grooving into a smokin’ Latin vibe as she asks, ‘Do you remember me?’, and tells her man, ‘It’s your last chance…cause I heard that song before.’ Hit the Record has all requisite hooks as it veers from the low-key verses to the peaks of the pre-chorus right back down to the solid repetitive cadences of the chorus. Lark has managed to thread together a mix of genres to create what is essentially a kind of break-up song set to the pulse of a yes, party tune.
