The Emergency
BT feat. Andrew Bayer
A clear standout from the These Hopeful Machines album, “The Emergency,” featuring vocals by Andrew Bayer and BT himself, follows in the footsteps of previous heart-wrenching singles like “Break My Fall” and “Force of Gravity.” Never one to say something with anything less than embarrassing eloquence (just follow this guy on Twitter), the lyrical honesty is stunning. “The Emergency” refers to that destructive panic that overcomes you when you’ve extended yourself, made your desires known to another, and you’re left waiting to see if it’s going to be given back to you. “I’d wait in line/For something I knew that I would get to keep/Your ‘I love you,” is followed by the reassuring line, “Emergency has passed.” The song suffers from that Offer Nissim syndrome of being just too good to be effectively remixed. While none of the mixes across the 13-track EP are bad in any way, not even heavy hitters like Morgan Page and Dave Audé manage to reconstruct the track in a way that competes with the original. But they make a damn good effort. This was well worth the wait.
