A lot of times, I find albums have a certain season they “sound” like. Despite The Faim naming their EP “Summer Is A Curse”, I’ve decided this album fits best for fall… which is perfect, because guess which season starts in 2 weeks?
Can I explain my thoughts here? Not sure. But I’ll try.
“Summer Is A Curse” has been on my Spotify rotation since it came out earlier this summer. It feels like late summer, when the anxiety of the school year starts to set in. I haven’t been in school since 2013 and I still feel that late summer anxiety. From there, we head into “A Million Stars” which… something about the acoustic guitar in the first verse combined with the piano in the chorus feels so nostalgic. It feels… final? It feels like the end of a movie when the cute summer romance has to end for them to go to college in separate states. *epiphany* maybe that’s why summer is a curse, because it’s so finite?? My mind.
“Make Believe” rolls through like a freight train, like I wonder if one day I’ll hear this song and not cry. The bridge specifically combined with the following chorus… I’m waiting for it to rain so I can go outside and listen to this song in the pouring rain like this:
My absolute favourite track hands down is “My Heart Needs To Breathe”. First off, the spooky music box music in the beginning transported me back to the first time I heard “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa” and suddenly the world was a better place and Trump wasn’t president yet. You can feel the moments of inspiration on this EP from early Panic! and I absolutely love it. Like, this song is SO strong, I want to tattoo it on my face. When it does a huge 180 switch from the verse to the chorus… my heart fell out. And then the way it slowly melts back into the previous tone from the verse… felt SO “Build God, Then We’ll Talk”. I don’t mean to compare it so much to them but like… I feel Ryan Ross in this Chili’s tonight.
If that wasn’t enough, we all know how I feel about a huge chorus of harmonies, correct? The end of the track reminded me of — hear me out — Coolio’s classic “Gangsta’s Paradise”. I think this band paid my parents to tell them about my entire musical history so they could make an album that specifically keyed into everything that makes me care. I’m overwhelmed.