California based experimental punk / hip-hop duo, consisting of brothers Fletcher and Wyatt Shears, return to the scene following 2018’s ‘Mirror Might Steal Your Charm’ with their new single ‘Clench To Stay Awake’. This is the duo’s first from their upcoming album ‘Kiss My Superbowl Ring’ due March 13th. The beginning of the song features Wyatt slowly crooning over a minimal riff and electronic drum beat, employing small electronic blips and bleeps creating the hypnagogic sound they are known for. The song then explodes into a heavy D-Beat drum style with louder vocals, showing that the group are continuing with the vibe on their previous album which saw the group explore more hardcore slugdy hypagogic style punk. However this song sees them going harder than usual, with Wyatt sounding completely unhinged towards the middle of the song, shouting manically and incoherently alongside the avant garde style hardcore synth punk instrumentals. The song then slows down and returns to the beginning simple riff. The lyrics in the song touch upon issues of mental health as well as descriptions of experiencing excruciating physical pain and internal struggle, yet at the end triumphing over these struggles. The song features an interesting theme, enjoyable instrumentals and a hardcore breakdown, following a structure of soft-hard-soft.
Overall a very good track, back to form for the Garden, however the hardcore breakdown would be better for me if it was slightly more coherent and had some structural riff or rhythym to it, but i suppose it’s supposed to represent the pain he is experiencing in this track.
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