Everyone has a day or memory they would prefer to return to at will. The basic concept of missing out on a day from your past, or wanting to go back in time to change the past, has been explored in just about every different area of popular culture. As long as the genre of science fiction has existed, the concept of time travel has persisted and permeated its way into and throughout American popular culture, in particular, staying in the public consciousness most notably in the form of movies like Back to the Future and even Avengers:
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Endgame, which broke just about every box office record ever set. One particular medium that didn’t seem to spend time fantasizing about the possibility of time travel was music, which was understandable — time travel is a very visual concept, and evoking it through lyrics is a tall ask. Noteworthy additions to the time travel canon include Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” and the Jonas Brothers’ “Year 3000,” and it’s undeniable that “Turning Back Time” by Vineet deserves its place within the time travel anthem pantheon.
“Turning Back Time” exemplifies everything it takes to be a standout pop hit: high-grade production teeming with a high-concept narrative structure and lyrics both ambitious and yet simple enough to sing along with after a first listen, “Turning Back Time” comes from Vineet, an artist keenly aware of his talents and own ambitions. Rising to the occasion with a song meant to summon memories and emotions, Vineet was dead set on bringing a single with quality production able to evoke “the wonderful years of sweet synth based pop melodies as created by synth pop legends like Daft Punk and yet […] enhanced technically & musically with today’s production effervescence and pop chart relevance!” There’s a brilliant amount of spinning plates up in the air that more than allow the single to speak for itself, and Vineet performs his vocals with surefire confidence that enables the concept of time travel and emotional yearning to come together perfectly.
The song will undoubtedly rub some the wrong way with its heavy use of enhanced vocal stylings, focusing on autotune for most of its runtime while also incorporating a very brief rapped verse, but for those willing to open their minds, there’s a great deal of fun to be had with “Turning Back Time.” The song ultimately works for those who are willing to let the heavily-produced stylizing work as a layer of the song’s varied production instead of viewing the autotune and electronic emphasis as the key focus. It’s not common to see pop songs as unabashedly joyful and electronically-driven in today’s day and age, so the fact that “Turning Back Time” exists at all in the way it does is nothing short of a miracle.
Vineet’s other work is mostly vague to me, but his latest single has convinced me to dig deeper and see what other influences and genres he has up his sleeve. The sharpened ear for pop music production gives me high hopes for whatever he decides to pursue, and the far-reaching narrative-driven lyrics within “Turning Back Time” are something I hope we see more of in the future.
Patrick Orr