Album Review
WONDERLICK stirs melodies that defiantly oppose apathy in its new album “Wonderlick Goes to War”
Wonderlick storms onto the modern music battlefield with its new album, “Wonderlick Goes to War,” the band’s fifth full-length LP. The album arrives during a provocative time when cultural decay, political apathy, and authoritarianism often drown out artistic nuance. This ambitious 11-track project from Jay Blumenfield and Tim Quirk rises above the noise and fights back, blending electrifying rock-pop craftsmanship, poignant lyrics, and fearless honesty into a stirring melodic statement of defiance.
Opening with the glistening anthem “Niagara Falls, 1969,” Wonderlick sets the tone with a deceptively euphoric melody that conceals a more profound commentary on spectacle and reality. This track transports listeners to a moment suspended between the natural wonder of Niagara Falls and human manipulation. Inspired by a real-life road trip and a surreal fact about the artificial halting of the American side of the famous falls, it serves as an ironic metaphor for our times’ power to create or stall beauty.
Following this powerful prelude is “Vinko Bogotaj,” named after the Slovenian ski jumper immortalized for a dramatic fall. It’s a soulful reminder that defeat, while painful, often holds the key to personal growth. Wonderlick channels that openness into a groove-laden tune that feels like therapy through song.
The third track, “I Am a Children’s Book,” stands out as one of the album’s emotional linchpins. It is melancholic and self-aware, brimming with lyrical depth that gives voice to neglected ideas once cherished by society but now feared. This track serves as a metaphor for those discarded concepts that reemerge with unexpected power. Jay’s vocals, full of passion and urgency during the climax, are spine-tingling and encapsulate the album’s fight against intellectual complacency.
On “Popping Pills,” the band addresses mortality with startling clarity, laced with truth. This candid reevaluation of past reckless behavior mirrors the emotional journey of trading youthful invincibility for cautious endurance and present-day gratitude, a tender anthem for second chances wrapped in a buoyant, piano-driven rhythm.
With “Hollow Bodies,” Wonderlick unflinchingly pivots outward with an electrifying commentary on the culture wars, dissecting the decay of ideological balance in modern America. Its confident swagger conceals hollowness beneath performative irritation, illustrating a society unmoored from empathy yet desperate for meaning, underscored by layered arrangements. The surreal “Rhinoceros” serves as one of the album’s boldest allegories, critiquing fascism through absurdist metaphor. It’s a blend of Kafka and synth-pop, resonating with uncanny power and unsettling accuracy.
“Museum of the Inquisition” and “My Love’s a Weapon” explore the dark aspects of control, both institutional and personal, with chilling execution and profound insight. These tracks maintain an intense energy, challenging listeners with jarring lyrics and complex melodies. They draw on historical cruelty to mirror modern psychological torment, using discomfort as an artistic tool. “My Love’s a Weapon” twists romance into something darker, serving as a meditation on power and the fragility of emotional trust.
Meanwhile, “Wag Your Tail” offers a refreshing dose of rock ‘n’ roll levity while addressing the theme of blind obedience. In contrast, “Reading a Loved One’s Mind” offers brief yet necessary moments of lightness and openness, reminding us that tenderness can foster connection in a digital age marked by disconnection, even during turbulent times.
The album closes with “Origin Story,” a trembling, reflective finale that weaves together everything that came before. It transforms into a whisper turned war cry, closing out a manifesto disguised as a record.
“Wonderlick Goes to War” is an artistic protest, a melodic reckoning, and an emotional survival guide for a world on the edge. With masterful songwriting, genre-defying production, and fearless commentary, Wonderlick crafts a delivery that is both a personal diary and a manifesto, dressed in shimmering soundscapes for those determined to feel, think, and resist. This record demands to be heard, urging listeners to rediscover their humanity.
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Album Review
Saint Escape sets the past on fire with latest release “Look At What You Made”
Saint Escape isn’t here to reconcile the past, they’re here to torch it. Now, with the release of their new single “Look At What You Made,” Saint Escape have unleashed a punishing, nu-metal-infused anthem that just sounds like an equal measure of reckoning and release. It is loud, confrontational, and honest, exactly what a purging rock record should be.
Produced and mixed by Joe Rickard, Starset, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, the track delivers a tight punch that fuses wild aggression and arena-sized power. “Look At What You Made” doesn’t stop. Rickard’s slick production redoubles Saint Escape’s raw edge rather than sanding it down, and the song takes on a huge, modern rock sound without losing its bite.
“Look At What You Made” is a primal response to toxic authority figures, the kind who kept order through fear, misinformation, and control, and knew where best to leave emotional scars. On “Look At What You Made,” the anger boiling beneath the surface becomes something purposeful, an anthem for anyone who’s been moulded by manipulation and left in its wake. The effect is communal shake-off, a determination not to be shaped by the past.
And lead vocalist Matt Cox provides a threatening, buffed clean vocal performance, of sorts as well, one that’s heavy with anger and determination. There is rage here, but also clarity, a sense that this is less about revenge than about reclaiming autonomy. As Cox puts it, the song is a purge, a reminder that the future belongs to those willing to to take it back. “Look At What You Made” is a testament to strength and newfound independence, it’s further evidence that Saint Escape are bleeding their past into something louder, stranger, and harder to ignore.
Album Review
Big O redefines artistic evolution with “When it’s Not Said, But Done” album
Big O’s “When it’s Not Said, But Done” is a whisper of transformation narrated through rhythm, texture, and space. Across its fifteen tracks, spanning just under forty-seven minutes, Big O sacrifices flash for feeling and ego for essence.
The production feels like an artist who has finally quit chasing something external and is instead listening inward. The flow of the album is methodical but organic, with each track leading into the other as if they were diary entries. On “Free Spirit,” Big O creates a soundscape that embodies freedom in action, with rhythms that propel you forward. It’s one of those rare songs that can be at once contemplative and propulsive, with a slow revelation. And also, “New Found Joy” is an anthem for rebirth.
Big O’s production vision here is sweeping and cinematic, but also intimate. The presence of live musicians gives an organic texture. Jeronimo G’s xylophone on track nine tolls like an intimate conversation, while IB Delight’s saxophone on track ten blows satisfying warmth and longing into the mix. These collaborative moments are the crucial parts of Big O’s unfolding language.
Every choice, from the minimal artwork by Andriyan Robby to the in-house mixing and mastering by Big O himself, is consistent with the album’s spirit of transformational thought. In “When it’s Not Said, But Done,” Big O has created a statement on silent courage. It is an album for those who know that, in reality, real change does not need to be shouted from the mountaintops, but only heard, felt, and lived.
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