When I first became embedded in the music communities that have now shaped my taste there was a small handful of names that were synonymous with the scene. The obvious ones are names like brakence, ericdoa, midwxst, but then there’s slightly deeper cuts like login, and notably 50landing. 50 has been a bit of an enigma within that cohort because as soon as he was there, he was gone. Since the end of 2020 there’s been a hole in the scene, with one drop in 2021 and then… Silence.

Until now. i could have sworn is a triumphant return in the form of a 5 and a half minute journey across multiple genres and influences. Spanning from chilled out and pop influenced all the way to nostalgic dance sections with shifting bpms. The soundscape on this track is classic 50landing, picking up right where we left off with re:set and still, now paired to an infectious club house sequence. From the very opening moments of this track we’re met with a lead synth that sways with the dusty texture of an old synthpop vinyl, and simple drums that for lack of a better comparison remind me of wait from the Minecraft soundtrack (which to be fair a hell of a body of work to be compared to). It sets a tone balancing this driving feel of lingering hope with the longing left within the vocals that are truly accentuated in the pitch shifted low-bitrate sections. Before the vibe changes entirely we’re stripped back to basics, with the prior mentioned vocals paired with a beautiful piano melody. The atmosphere swells, slowly enveloping you in it’s synthetic grasp, and then all at once: silence again.

After a brief pause we’re delved into the first of 2 contrasting but similar dance sections. The first is distinctly modern with it’s wailing and sliding synths juxtaposed against UK Jungle drums. It’s almost transitional as it’s bringing us up to speed (figuratively and literally) with our new found energy, only to give way for a sound that’s both classic and nostalgic. The later dance section is driven by these classic club house thumping kicks, and a brick wall of a soundscape. It’s so immensely thick and driving it’s infectious, I genuinely cannot help but move to this section as the vocals reach a climax and the chords come together in a moment that feels truly magical. As the section carries out suddenly the speed of the song starts to fluctuate, everything is unsteady as the kick build begins, and the speed begins to climb faster and faster until it’s a a rapid climactic kick roll. And then? Silence once again.

When I saw how long the song was I knew it was going to jump around and try some things, but I had not anticipated it’s second bout of silence to be interrupted by a low fidelity full acoustic performance. It brings us down from the electric energy to remind us about what the songs really about. It was said best by André 3000 that “y’all don’t hear me you just wanna dance”, and that point feels deeply relevant to this final switch as through these energetic dance sequences it’s easy to ignore the lyrical content and storytelling. It brings us down to earth again, presenting us with the grief of a missed connection. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong people. Or something along those lines. It’s such a raw sequence, and even as the atmosphere swells again leading into the end the focus is still entirely on 50s words as we hang on each line.

I’ve been waiting for this day for a while. 50 was on my list of artists to eventually cover on THE ARCHIVE, probably with an article on re:set. It’s a song that was in my rotation for an incredibly long time, and I’ve just been patiently waiting for more while also knowing that 50 was traveling and living his life, which I have nothing but respect for. Now that this day has come though, all that waiting feels right. Coming back after 4 years with a track that covers so much ground is more than any of us ever could have asked for. It’s almost like making up for lost time, and I’m crossing my fingers that we won’t be waiting nearly as long for more 50landing this time.