It’s time for sadbois to unite, because Said The Sky and Dabin have teamed up for a second time for their newest record, Hero ft. Olivver The Kid, out via Seeking Blue. A follow-up to their previous collab, Superstar, which appeared on Said The Sky’s debut album, Hero exudes the same feelsy future bass vibes, complete with saturated electric guitar and ethereal vocal chops.

Beginning with the cutest bitcrushed vocal sample, Olivver The Kid takes over with his silky-smooth musings. A heartfelt bop overflowing with nostalgia, the production on the verses is deliberately sparse, with only a guitar and some wispy pads to let the vocals stand out. Percussion wet with tons of reverb initiates the build up to the drop – a future bass paradise with soaring supersaws and prominent vocal chops at the forefront. The vaguest hint of an electric guitar in this first climax forebodes the next drop, which includes a solo guitar section too. A lovely riff echoing the chord progression takes the lead here, occupying the mids perfectly in a beautifully mixed patch. Sweet cooings reverbed to the point of oblivion float brilliantly throughout the mix, providing a stellar harmony that is so imperceptible yet apt.

Of course, the organic instrumentation (guitar and piano) and the vocal chops contribute largely to feels oozing through the entire four minutes of the song, but the vocals and their lyrical content make this song as cute as it is. It’s a throwback to your teenage years with ‘I was making you a playlist’ of ‘Kings of Leon and Oasis’. A desperate chorus of heartache tugs at your heartstrings with ‘I wanna be your hero / Someone who can save you when it’s tough’. It’s only fitting that such a pure and wholesome song has pure and wholesome lyrics.

It’s hard not to compare this one to Superstar, given the similarities in sound design, arrangement and vibes. Apparently, Said The Sky and Dabin choose to go with the same theme in both, with similar lyrical offerings (‘Even a superstar can be lonely, do you think about me now?’ & ‘Would I ever really be enough, I wanna be a hero’).

As much as Linn’s voice made an indelible impact on the song in Superstar, it’s apparent that entire high end of the spectrum in Hero is reserved for Olivver The Kid, giving his voice so much more room to shine. The vocal chops this time are much more authentic, sounding vaguely like organic melismas rather than an artifact of audio engineering – although Superstar’s single vocal loop was catchy, it was lacking the variation that Hero’s has. One of the standout features of Superstar which made it one of the best songs of last year was its unique drops – the first centered around vocal chops and the second around Dabin shredding the electric guitar. This tune adopts a largely similar structure, except the second drop includes both the vocal chop section and an additional guitar section, making it a whole fifty seconds long. Sure, the copy-paste drop might be a repetition, but you’ll hear no complaints from me; if anything, the mid-drop build-up without percussion adds a touch of climax to the song with the charisma of the electric guitar. Some of the sound design is clearly distinctive in each of the two songs; while Superstar goes with a damp, fuzzy kick, Hero employs a punchier, clearer kick to add to the depth of the song. Even the supersaws are EQed a bit lower in Hero, letting the vocal chops sit above the mix and gain their deserved attention rather than blending with the supersaws themselves (as in Superstar).

When the song closes with sixteen bars of pure piano and acoustic guitar which is so obviously recorded, you can’t help feeling that warm fuzzy feeling and hitting repeat.

This collaboration was inevitable; both producers are great friends, recent roommates and have gone b2b a few times (Dab The Sky at Lost Lands and a b2b at Illenium’s MSG show). With Said The Sky teasing fans often with clips from his upcoming sophomore album, it’s safe to assume that this song will be featured on its tracklist. From a couple of previews of the album that have shared via social media, it looks like you’ll be hearing more of Olivver The Kid on the record. Fingers crossed, maybe we’ll see a couple more singles from the album drop before this year comes to a close. Until then, enjoy binge listening to Hero.