If there is one thing you need to know about We Are The Way For The Cosmos To Know Itself it is this: they are way better at making music than coming up with band names. Because as band names go, We Are The Way For The Comos To Know Itself is about as silly as !!!.
Still, Flashbacks is stop-me-in-my-tracks beautiful. The kind of song that haunts me me - the vocals gently shimmy against soft electronic production and a nice, slow beat. There is something timeless about Flashbacks - a little bit 80s, a little bit 2000s, a little bit right-here-right-now.
This track is also full of wonderful little details. That heartbreaking opening line, those vocals in that chorus (“I keep hearing those flashbacks!”), that bridge towards the end when everything drops away into the background. It all literally gives me goosebumps.
There is so much heartbreaking loss here... The band describe flashbacks as a song about bittersweet nostalgia and longing - memories that exist in the borderline between happiness and anxiety. It feels like trying to put the pieces back together, figuring out where love was lost and where all those feelings went... “Remembering the past in differing shades of light”, say the band. It’s a description that feels perfect. This song gets me.