In turns reminiscent of Blur, Superdrag, The Rentals, and Ciudad, Jam Lorenzo and company certainly know how to spin new yarns around a long-favored sound.
If there’s anything the geek-rock canon has taught us, it’s putting on a brave face. Which is to say, with a skip instead of a traipse in your step, in the face of great tragedy. Yes, “great” may appear overstated, but then who hasn’t resorted to hyperbole once or twice in their lives?
Especially when love decides to leave.
Except in the case of The Geeks’ “She’s Leaving Home and I’m Wasting Away,” the impetus was “a slew of friends who, one by one, were leaving the country for good,” the band shares in a statement.
More than strategic, the pivot to a more conventional romantic narrative—focused on a romantic partner, instead of a haphazard compendium of buddies—countered the band’s collective “pandemic-induced quarter-life crisis” with a paradoxical dash of sunshine.
“Writing a conventional love song allowed us to break that streak [of COVID-era songs of depression and anxiety] and [instead] write songs that are less angry and resentful and more melancholic,” they add.
This skippy, brave-faced tenor is, for sure, contrapuntal to the quotidian moping of the lockdown era. Ultimately, “SLHAIWA” offers up a pretty packed brick in the happy-sad, loud-quiet-loud monolith of songs decked in the same wall.
In turns reminiscent of Blur, Superdrag, The Rentals, and Ciudad, Jam Lorenzo and company certainly know how to spin new yarns around a long-favored sound: dirt tones, analog synths, and sing-song melodies hung on driving rhythms and alternative-era sonics.
The studio work by Redverb is aces as always, going for a beautiful, airy plasticity that pairs well with the song’s elegiac exhortations. Considering individual parts were tracked remotely—and the compulsion to add little bits and pieces appeared beyond suppressing—the resulting track goes down like a choice drink.
Treat yourself and stream “She’s Leaving Home and I’m Wasting Away” today.