Frightful Places
Photo Cred 📸: @spaceshipphotos
I grew up in the heyday of 2000s emo. Names like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy were considered the face of, but bands like Hey Mercedes, Daphne Loves Derby and The Forecast were just a few of what that deluge of emo pop really held sonically. Catchy song structures with brooding yet talented vocal work are still hotly contested as “Real Emo”, but for those of us that remember the feeling, the shows and the late summer nights, arbitrary genre assignments mean little. Frightful Places reminds me of the best of what the scene had to offer at the time.
The EP kicks off with “Old Frame” a melancholy waltz with potent choruses and soaring guitar. Inflections of 80s and 90s rock can be heard echoing throughout as indulgent guitar lines wind through crooning drum work. A guttural bass compliments the huge hooks of My memory’s fading / My memory’s faded before closing out.
“Still” begins with a straightforward acoustic melody and dreamy atmospherics before slowly plucking to life. Lyrics of not recognizing the joy of the moment make for an ice cold frame of reference despite its summery recollection. Holding our breath for a time, or some kind of phase - out on the shore in the hottest month of summer. Still. Let the breeze surround me. I'll see what I was missing.
The closing track “Stuck” is as dreamy as anything else on the EP, but quickly shifts gears with soaring guitar riffs and buzzing basslines. Hoping for progress, but coming to terms with another empty stop on a long, long journey the lyrics espouse a pained realization of growth not coming, slowly fading out to the repeated lines of I'm stuck in the same place
The solo project of Kevin Tiernan, this self-titled ep is a brilliant 5 song EP capturing of everything I’ve always loved about emo pop, catchy yet despondent, outwardly grim as well as internally hopeless, the album is infectious and not resistant to windows-down-volume-up sing-alongs. We very much enjoyed it and look forward to what Tiernan has in store for us.
Check out the release page on Bandcamp here: Frightful Places
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
03/27/23
