Kavinsky is a French electronica producer which is important in that it’s very clear from the jump that this album is produced overseas. European electronica has a very distinct style compared to American electronica in a couple of different ways, the most telling to my ear in that it’s a little cheesy and oftentimes has a sort of over the top thematic story behind it. OutRun isn’t clearly a concept album in the way The Who’s Tommy is (which is in part due to the latter having more lyrics in it), but the general theme of OutRun is that this album details the story of a young man who died when he crashed his Ferrari Testarossa in the 80’s only to come 20 years later as a zombie who produces electronic music. Again, a cheesy (but kinda cool!) concept.
The lead single “Nightcall” was featured prominently in 2011’s film Drive which features Ryan Gosling as a smolderingly cool getaway driver with a sweet scorpion jacket.
I also don’t know if anyone else has this happen to them, but whenever I connect Bluetooth in my car this song always pops up and autoplays from iTunes. I purchased the album years ago when I first saw Drive, and I swear I can’t seem to find a way to get it to stop. This album just can’t help but keep following me around like a zombie.
Standout Songs: “Nightcall”, “Blizzard”, “ProtoVision”
