There are two obvious things about "Soft Rain." The first is the way it hews closely to pop dogmas: structures (verse, verse, chorus, middle eight), functional drums, three-note bass carrying a basic chord sequence, esoteric lyrics. It's done flawlessly. We're lifted up and laid down at all the right points, and thereby made receptive to the second thing—and that's its unashamedly lush, soaring, open-heartedness. A sparkling synthesiser line, rather than guitar, separates it from the similarly halcyon likes of "1979" by The Smashing Pumpkins, but it's not so much a nod to this type of mid-'90s alt-rock as much as it revels in it through specs made of brand new, rose-tinted crystal. His "Fascination" mix does a similar thing, this time sitting dewy-eyed alongside the likes of M83 with whooping My Bloody Valentine overlays delivering unrestrained joy on slow pressure release.
The Baumel mix is essentially a well-executed translation for the club, keeping the emotion of the original, and ending up epic and respectable in a way that James Lavelle might take to. Melon's comes down harder with the kicks, but the fuzzy two-chord hook and pad make it more of a laidback shuffle. These "dance mixes" make the whole package feel like a pop single—clear formula, familiar, effortlessly consumable. But whereas pop's chief goal is often to make money, there's no sense of that whatsoever here—the only thing this record wants is for you to feel good. It makes all the difference.
Buy Andre Obin - Soft Rain at
  
Tracklist: Andre Obin - Soft Rain
 01. Soft Rain
02. Soft Rain (Patrice Bäumel Future Remix)
03. Soft Rain (Melon Extended Radio Remix)
04. Soft Rain (Melon Extended Dub Remix)
05. Soft Rain (Fascination Remix)
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