It’s unclear whether the Sacramento-based group Best Move are a nostalgic bunch, but they have an understood respect for their forebears. They’ve described their sound as a “thank you to the past,” while their band name is a nod to Harry Nilsson, borrowing from his song of the same title. On their new track “Forgotten Bloom,” time is still a central focus. But instead of fixating on the past, the song seems to hark on the unknowable vastness of the future and the unnerving expectations of managing it. “A breeze of time / Nowhere to hide,” Kris Anaya sings as if being consumed by the infinity in front of him. The tone of “Forgotten Bloom” is both warm and downcast, like a summer thunderstorm.
“For me, I believe ‘Forgotten Bloom’ to be interpreted as the inevitability of growing up, changing, friends moving on, getting married and falling in love,” Anaya explains. “I personally have always hated this concept of settling down so to me the idea of this scares me to my core. This song tries to bring light to this feeling. We have always been inspired by Beck’s Sea Change and Air’s Talkie Walkie, so we wanted to incorporate the intersection of the two. We decided to blend a Mini Moog with a pedal steel, this gives it this lush moody sound. For the drums, we always try to keep them very quit and only brining in certain section of the drums when they are needed.”
Best Move are only at the beginning of their journey. Kris Anaya, Joseph Davancens, and Fernando Olivia formed the group in 2019. “Thematically, there’s a reconciliation with who we thought we were going to be when we were young musicians versus what we’ve become,” Davancens adds. “There’s a feeling of acceptance and resignation here, and that’s sort of beautiful.”
“Forgotten Bloom” has a bit of Foxwarren and brief Tame Impala vibes. But their influences range from ’60s and ’70s songwriters including Randy Newman and Brian Wilson to the acclaimed film soundtracks of Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola. Listen below.
