Imagine if pop-punk had grown up and evolved into something more interesting. Imagine if it had left behind the frat-boy humour and the identikit groove. Imagine if it had hung out with other genres, taking on some of their best aspects via osmosis rather than forced moves. Imagine if that had happened, and there was an artist who encapsulates all of that in today’s music scene. Well, there is, and the artist you have in your mind is BruceBan$hee.
His latest single, “$trawberry Blues,” is a reminder that nostalgia is fine, but such genres need to keep pace with the turning of the sonic world, its fads and fashions, tastes and zeitgeists. This is a song that knows exactly where it has been but is more interested in where it is going; familiar yet forward-thinking!
The song might wander nonchalantly in with industrial guitars and a funereal beat, but it soon explodes into buoyant pop-punk grooves. But it is the dynamic as much as anything else that sets it apart from the giants whose shoulders it perhaps stands on. Love-lorn, emo sentiments blend with barked, anthemic lyrical interludes; staccato guitars punching through; breakdowns whose lows and lulls mean that you return to the sonic fray even more impressively; and clever changes of pace keep you thinking. It’s got it all!
There is nothing wrong with taking insight and inspiration from what has gone before, but the art is to pick up the torch…or several torches…and run them into a bright new future. Do that, and you will end up with something as infectious, incendiary, and exciting as “$trawberry Blues.”
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