Eighty Ninety Unveils Formative New EP, The Night Sky

When Taylor Swift herself puts your song on a playlist, you know you’re doing something right. Abner and Harper James, a brother duo from NYC known as Eighty Ninety, found themselves in that situation a number of years ago, when Swift included their song, aptly titled “Your Favorite Song,” on a Spotify playlist called “Songs Taylor Loves.” She placed the track as the 13^th song on the playlist, and all the articles questioning the validity of that gesture, with 13 famously being Swift’s favorite number, were justified. Standout songs like “False God” and “Change” are placed in the 13^th spot on the track lists of Swift’s albums reputation and Fearless respectively, so, perhaps, there was something to that decision.

Swift or no Swift, these boys do numbers. “Three Thirty,” the chill singer-songwriter gem with touches of electronic elements, is their highest streamed song by a gigantic margin, amassing almost 18 million streams on Spotify. Other tracks like “10K Summer Nights,” and both the original and remix version of “Your Favorite Song,” the latter with fellow NYC duo Loote, also sit in the millions. The duos new EP, The Night Sky, is out now, and contains a mix of previously released tracks, such as “Better As Friends,” and “Heart On The Line,” as well as some new ones like “Walking You Home,” and “Thinking Of You.”

There is something so inherently euphoric and youthful about these songs. Something so free. Something so heartbreaking. Something so closely connected to special moments in New York. “Forever” is the song you have on repeat while you walk miles downtown with no specific destination, trying to hold yourself together and praying that no one notices your pain after the one you love most slipped away. “The Night Sky” sounds like two people running across the Brooklyn Bridge on a summer night, stopping to kiss in the glow of the lights from the World Trade Center and other downtown buildings behind them. “Walking You Home” is the song you have playing as you drive west on the Long Island Expressway with the windows down as the city slowly begins to take shape in front of your eyes.

The influence of acts like Coldplay and Tame Impala is incredibly apparent here, but, as always, music goes full circle. If you’re a first-time listener, songs like “Better As Friends” and “Walking You Home” may feel so very familiar… like you’ve heard them before. The reality is that Eighty Ninety are influencing the current wave of alternative pop acts, and their sounds and stylistic choices are popping up everywhere. While you may not hear these songs on Top 40 radio (yet), this IS the current sound of pop music. It is this breezy, soul-baring, and nostalgic sound that cannot be bound by sub-labels and classifications.

The vocals on this project are lush and emotive… beautifully sung to begin with, but perfectly produced to match the vibe of the song. Abner never strains, stays well within his wheelhouse, and delivers emotional vocals that never sound like a put-on, like with the vocal breaks and airy tones on the tender “Know Me.” He effortlessly jumps in and of out his falsetto on “Happier,” stays within the lower confines of his voice on the breathy vocal section of “Thinking Of You,” and experiments with vocal effects that only enhance his best qualities on “Walking You Home.”

This project could be defined by many of the sentiments found within, but two stick out the most. In “Better As Friends,” Abner sings, “Once you tell someone that you know they’re the one and you love em, can you really be better as friends?”, and in “Happier”, sings, “Every time it reminds me of the night when I took you out instead of paying my rent.” It can be argued that most of the younger generation doesn’t know how to deal with conflict, but these songs come from a place of humility. They come from someone who gave everything. They come from someone who has asked all of the questions and, most likely, hasn’t received all of the answers. They come from someone who has sat up all night wondering what could have been done to salvage what was there. The answer may be nothing. Whatever the case is, what matters is that this body of work continues the flow of recent projects that say, “This hurts, but I wish you well,” instead of spewing bitterness and anger. Maybe we can all learn from that.

You can stream Eighty Ninety’s The Night Sky EP here: