The eerie ambiance of Flash In The Night

I found this song recently on an 80s compilation playlist playing while I was doing my last YouTube video before bed. My tastes primarily in finding songs that weren't on my retro radar. I was intrigued to see what I could find. When the song was next on the list, I was instantly hooked just by the sample of the song. It was the one song that stuck out the most above all the others, I bought it on iTunes the next day. Throughout the day I kept listening to it over and over again, captivated by a song with a supernatural story behind it.

From the beginning beats of the song, I immediately found a sci-fi vibe, that's what my first impression was listening to it. From the first melody, the ring of a keyboard note made me think of UFOs. Then listening to the lyrics, I felt moved by the power of the eerie element in the story of the song as I had questions that couldn't be answered, I had to make my answers.

As a break of dawn came closer

All my hopes seemed so forlorn.

The misty signs of laughter

And the light eluded all.

My despair was caught in motion

What has the singer found amidst his sorrows? To have an unexpected twist to his long night? It took him out of his original thoughts and emotions to a life-changing moment of what he has discovered.

Other songs come to mind that present an unexplained supernatural entity like Hoizer's In The Woods Somewhere, about finding something unfathomable in the woods, that has more of a poetic sinister nature to it. Within Temptation's A Dangerous Mind about searching for an answer to a sinister secret, she may not want to know in the end. But this was interesting to discover a song that has vague details for our imagination to create. The song explains that this being may not seem to harm him. He's telling us what this frozen moment was like to see something so captivating. Not many songs dabble in supernatural topics without malicious intentions in other songs I've heard. This one was lyrically crafted to give us the details to be entranced by what he's found. It doesn't reveal to be a malicious intention, nor something to be trusted. As I said, we have to make our answers to it.

This is a song with an eerie element, but it's catchy, it's enjoyable to have a song with multiple ideas as to what he's found. Is it aliens? Is it fairies? Is it a shapeshifter? Our hints were, "Face just barely true ", "Shadows in blue", and "A Glimpse of Golden Skin" to have an idea of what this looks like. Is this discovery something to be drawn to or withdraw from? Did he go with this supernatural being? Was this unknown being something or someone he was waiting for? He's had this strange calm to this sudden situation in the supernatural. All we know is it was a flash in the night that drew his attention and it all went from there. We don't know the outcome, it's all up to what our imagination is combined with the clues of the lyrics to what this mysterious figure looks like.

This Swedish band, Secret Service released this song in 1982, it was a success in getting plays and tune traffic in countries like Portugal, France, Norway, and other counties in Europe, except the US. I think the US missed an opportunity to have on the radio to be enjoyed by those. I find it ironic considering how sci-fi/supernatural culture is thrived after with shows and movies, yet this song all about sci-fi and supernatural goes unnoticed by an audience that would have loved it in 1982. Now decades later, it's become a cult following after being discovered again, there's an appreciation for the song of discovering the unknown.

Give this song a listen for yourself, and see what answers you can come up with as to what he has discovered.