Rocker (feedbot)
Gold Member
As the Steve Miller Band once remarked, ‘time keeps on slippin’ into the future’, and it’s this very concept which concerns Picturesque on their new EP, ‘IYKYK’. However, rather than flying like an eagle to the sea, the quartet from Kentucky are taking the passage of days, hours and minutes, and mixing it with a slice of lime to create post-pop refreshment. The sense of enforced pandemic-era reflection permeates this release, and Picturesque seem to have resolved to move away from their ‘rock band’ roots and take flight across the great chasms between genres. “Musically, I think every artist kind of hits the threshold for the scene that they came up in, or the particular demographic of their listeners,” guitarist Zach Williamson says. “We asked ourselves ‘How do we break out of just being a rock band, or a Warped Tour band?’ Because we don’t want to be seen as that. We want to be much more.”
However, much as Picturesque’s desire to break away from their previous selves, the past echoes through this EP. ‘Hopeless’, the first single released, raises the curtains on a brawling beat via a medieval guitar intro and alternates vocally between resignation and frustration, digging through the ruins of vocalist Kyle Hollis’ life like an aggressive archeologist. “He was kidnapped by his biological mother,” Williamson says. “‘Kidnap’ may be a strong word, but that’s the word Kyle uses—he was taken away from his father and nobody was able to contact him. And basically his dad and a private detective came to grab him and take him back. So we took inspiration from being stuck in this kind of rundown house in southern Arkansas and put it into the verses a little bit.”
Grunge throwback touches make the transition between ‘Hopeless’ and ‘Break It All’ even tougher: they’re channelling their inner teenage rage and throwing it at the wall to watch it shatter on impact via staccato steam of consciousness. This EP has a glorious flow, and as soon as the fuzz fades on the guitar on ‘Break It All’, we’re swept upwards on a stream of dreamlike electro pop nostalgia on ‘Waterson West’. Just a pinch of Jimmy Eat World sugar makes the paper aeroplanes of each guitar note soar. ‘IYKYK’ is no poorer for having no contributing bass player: in fact, it just adds to the sense of a grainy, incomplete memory that’s being shared with us, and makes the electro samples that little bit more powerful when they hit a low note.
‘Dance With The Devil’ draws ‘IYKYK’s narrative journey to a close, and is both the angriest song on the record and the best. There’s proper metal guitar riffs thrown in there, and intriguing tempo swaps over steampunk beats; in short, it’s a song that a lot of bands would be very proud of, but it’s tucked away at the end of the EP like it’s in danger of embarrassing the rest of the tracklist.
To take on a new heavyweight pop direction is admirable, but the likes of ‘Pray’ and ‘Do Re Mi’ shouldn’t be forgotten. Those lovely electronic moments that have always infused Picturesque’s work have come to the forefront at the expense of the big guitar crashes, but the lyrical puzzles and metaphysical reflections remain to tease us.
If this is the start of a long-term sideways direction for the band then it could be very exciting, but if it comes at the expense of the explosive power of older releases like ‘ATTN:’ then there’s still time to make a musical U-Turn. They’ve always been a bold, smart band, and this is the kind of EP that blares out like a neon signpost across the musical landscape with its stylish and personal energy.
KATE ALLVEY
However, much as Picturesque’s desire to break away from their previous selves, the past echoes through this EP. ‘Hopeless’, the first single released, raises the curtains on a brawling beat via a medieval guitar intro and alternates vocally between resignation and frustration, digging through the ruins of vocalist Kyle Hollis’ life like an aggressive archeologist. “He was kidnapped by his biological mother,” Williamson says. “‘Kidnap’ may be a strong word, but that’s the word Kyle uses—he was taken away from his father and nobody was able to contact him. And basically his dad and a private detective came to grab him and take him back. So we took inspiration from being stuck in this kind of rundown house in southern Arkansas and put it into the verses a little bit.”
Grunge throwback touches make the transition between ‘Hopeless’ and ‘Break It All’ even tougher: they’re channelling their inner teenage rage and throwing it at the wall to watch it shatter on impact via staccato steam of consciousness. This EP has a glorious flow, and as soon as the fuzz fades on the guitar on ‘Break It All’, we’re swept upwards on a stream of dreamlike electro pop nostalgia on ‘Waterson West’. Just a pinch of Jimmy Eat World sugar makes the paper aeroplanes of each guitar note soar. ‘IYKYK’ is no poorer for having no contributing bass player: in fact, it just adds to the sense of a grainy, incomplete memory that’s being shared with us, and makes the electro samples that little bit more powerful when they hit a low note.
‘Dance With The Devil’ draws ‘IYKYK’s narrative journey to a close, and is both the angriest song on the record and the best. There’s proper metal guitar riffs thrown in there, and intriguing tempo swaps over steampunk beats; in short, it’s a song that a lot of bands would be very proud of, but it’s tucked away at the end of the EP like it’s in danger of embarrassing the rest of the tracklist.
To take on a new heavyweight pop direction is admirable, but the likes of ‘Pray’ and ‘Do Re Mi’ shouldn’t be forgotten. Those lovely electronic moments that have always infused Picturesque’s work have come to the forefront at the expense of the big guitar crashes, but the lyrical puzzles and metaphysical reflections remain to tease us.
If this is the start of a long-term sideways direction for the band then it could be very exciting, but if it comes at the expense of the explosive power of older releases like ‘ATTN:’ then there’s still time to make a musical U-Turn. They’ve always been a bold, smart band, and this is the kind of EP that blares out like a neon signpost across the musical landscape with its stylish and personal energy.
KATE ALLVEY