The Trusted - Lost Soul (self-released)

A beautiful creative dichotomy exists at the heart of The Trusted’s music. On the one hand, even in their fiercest moments, they create deftly crafted, robustly wrought, accessible, and infectious pop songs. On the other, they can also embrace abrasive textures that often propel them into, if not punkish realms, certainly the modern equivalent of garage-rock causticness.

This blend of the poised and the punchy, the raw and the refined, means that their music tick many different boxes for the listener. It is why their music can appeal to the more alternative tastes of the underground scene and still get the thumbs up from more mainstream fans—their potential to be both cultish and commercial means that they have an exciting future ahead of them.

The opening salvo and title track blends scuzzy sonics with shimmering production polish, an indie-pop anthem with rock weight and proto-punk swagger – remember, punk music started as fast pop music before the fashion police and back street anarchists took over, this is just that polished-up for a new audience. By contrast, “Marrow’” which follows is pure pop – pop with smarts, pop with poise, pop with purpose, but pop nonetheless – but don’t worry, pop isn’t the dirty word it once was, and certainly not when it sounds like this.

“Doomsday” sees them kick out the pop-rock jams, “Gimme Your Devotion” reminds me of the sort of anthemic cross-over sound that a-ha used to make (a band that is finally getting a far too late in the day re-evaluation by the more serious end of the music press) and “Burning the Night” is a dark and delicious slice of indie-rock.

Genres don’t matter, not with bands like The Trusted, who can wander far and wide across the core sounds of indie, pop, and rock. They are the perfect product of the post-genre world, making music that doesn’t sit easily in one genre but in doing so, appeals to many. How clever.

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