Review Summary: How did I become so dull?
When I was watching the live video of Teenage Wrist playing “Slide Away,” I was thinking to myself something along the lines of hearing the Smashing Pumpkins influence on their sound. As I was thinking that, I saw one of the guitarists wearing a Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt. That made me laugh. I’ve been on an interesting hot streak of finding music on spotify that I end up really loving. Crying, Big Jesus, and now Teenage Wrist.
This six-song EP is an astounding showcase of where this band excels, which is making big guitar-laden shoegazey alt-rock jams. There’s a lot of fuzzy distortion, lots of layered guitars, reverb, and very enjoyable, glossy vocals that sweep through the fuzz and really carry the tracks. It has a great emotional drive through the lyrics, which are never overly angsty, but indulge in their emo-esque themes without being whiny or unrelatable. The mixing as well is very great quality. I love the fuzz and static in the backdrop of Bloom, which really creates this great atmosphere amid the acoustic guitar and layered vocals. One of my favorite aspects of some songs are the short but sweet lead segments, such as in Slide Away and Outside of love (my personal favorite). They add so much character to the tracks and showcase some great soloing from the lead guitarist.
I think they did a phenomenal job with Dazed. It capitalizes on aspects of their sound they want to emphasize, and the length makes it short enough that the sound doesn’t get old by the end of the EP, especially since they change up the pace on the last two tracks, which was smart and kept me interested. I’m really excited to see what else this band will put out in the future.
4.5
