Review Summary: Everything’s Gonna Be Different Now
When was the last time you promised someone you loved you could change when you knew you couldn’t? Trapped between a gritty reality and the surrealism of unachievable promises, how did a lie only intended for self preservation change who you were entirely? They say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” but from the start of Knifeplay’s debut record “Pearlty” It appears that the urban underbelly of the band’s residential city (Philadelphia) should prove to be no different. Through a filter of drugs and regret, Knifeplay pays homage to a frighteningly lonely world.
From Pearlty’s first song “Tears”, Knifeplay makes their thesis abundantly clear: That between drug use and remorse, we straddle the line between what we can control and are too afraid to try to. The record opens with soft acoustic strums as vocalist TJ Strohmer croons with a flippant hope that everything will suddenly get better despite his devotion to the self-destructive things holding him down. Sonically “Tears” also simplifies Knifeplay’s very unique, noisy, and borderline psychedelic take on shoegaze into a verse/chorus structure. Most songs on the record have a retro/spacey quality to them as a base punctuated by out of place noises and samples to illustrate the awkward feelings the record’s narrative encapsulates. Each song on the album clutches tightly to the aforementioned themes but stand on their own as short stories. On “Lover” a romantic partner excuses her boyfriend’s abuse because of his world view, while on “Angel” Strohmer sings about an outcast being hired to murder a religious family’s disgraced son. Every story’s beauty is soured with a complacency and lost potential. Pearlty bookends “Tears” with album closer (and highlight) “Lemonhead” as a follow up response to the album’s thesis where the narrator finds themselves in that same dark place again. The drug induced filter that helped them survive through regret and trauma on “Tears”/other songs has finally left them feeling bastardized and totally removed from being able to ask for help or live a healthy life. The song ends with a beautiful instrumental piano section acting as the record’s only brief moment of clarity .
It’s tough to ask for help and perhaps even tougher to accept it. On “Pearlty” Knifeplay hyperbolizes their personal experiences through surrealism to imply that sometimes our best is not enough, even though perhaps it’s all we have.
