Standout Track: A sense of longing winds its way through the upbeat synths and warbling vocals of “1985,” the debut single from D.C. synth duo Loi Loi. Featuring siblings Kristie Di Lascio and Johnny Fantastic (Stronger Sex, Br’er), the track explores the very human desire to look back on simpler times. “We’ve all had to balance our own insecurities and non-contentedness with the reality around us,” Di Lascio says, “and we’ve all wanted to escape where we are at some point in our lives.”

Musical Motivation: “1985” was initially born out of a conversation that Di Lascio had with a number of friends who were born that year. “I just remember having a conversation about all of the things that I remembered that they didn’t,” she says. “I just went into a stream of consciousness about all of the things that I could remember from that time in history.” Not only are major worldwide events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, recounted, but memories of her aunts and late-night conversations with boyfriends. For her, the song acts as a sort of journal—a way for her to compile all of her memories of what life was like back then.

Maybe Not So Simple: The track isn’t all rose-tinted glasses, though. Di Lascio is quick to point out that, while we often desire to look back on a simpler time, things were never really as perfect as we may have thought they were. She notes that the song is “a commentary on things that used to be, things that are no longer, and things about that time that we may have taken for granted [and aren’t] as idealistic as we thought they were.”