Social Animals 'Best Years' Review: The new wave, indie EP has a touch of sadness that will make you introspect
Social Animals has announced it will release its new EP 'Best Years' on March 6 via all digital service providers and a limited-edition 7" vinyl release on March 20 through Rise Records. This marks the band's debut release on the record label and features previously released singles 'Best Years' and 'Bad Things' and an upcoming single 'Get Over It'.
Hailing from Duluth, Minnesota, the American band members are lyricist and lead vocalist Dedric Clark (vocals, rhythm guitar), Tony Petersen (lead guitar), Boyd Smith (drums) and Roger Whittet (bass). Since the release of the label's debut track 'Bad Things', Social Animals has featured on numerous headlines from Billboard, SiriusXM's Alt Nation, The Current, triple j, CLASH, Upset Magazine and more.
The new EP 'Best Years' takes a visionary step toward something bold while holding its listeners transfixed in thinly veiled melancholy. Snippets of bands like The Cure, The Cult and traces of Oasis and U2 begin to shine through at first listen, but Clark's vocals and the band's rich melodic tones begin to take a shape of their own.
Following the release of 'Bad Things' in November last year, the band's first single release off the new EP, the title track released on January 17. The song 'Best Years' stands out as the possible hit-scorer for the band. It is pleasing to those who steer towards refreshing new alternative music, but the lyrics require a nod of victory in their own right.
In a similar opening to The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven', 'Best Years' projects a theme of the song as well as the 3-track EP. "My knees are creaking. My ears are ringing. It’s like my body’s singing. Some kind of broke down lullaby," sings Clark. A sense of a lost lover seeps through, or perhaps a love lost of one's own better self and we get a glimpse of careful sadness paired with the shimmering need to go on.
Read more on 'Bad Things' and its music video here.
Like dipping strawberries in chocolate, 'Get Over It' makes a satisfyingly suitable companion to 'Best Years' track, albeit the lyrics could be displaced as a self-disciplinary pill to swallow after the introspective stasis one is placed in with the title track.
'Get Over It' makes surgical use of its happier, more energetic levels of new wave while the drums and sweeping melodies drive listeners forward in a song that should be added to your "road trip playlist". The vocals take on higher tones as opposed to the deeper vocals of 'Bad Things' and Clark reveals his shatteringly vibrating take on vocals and the ability to charm listeners with sweet melodies.
The 'Best Years' debut EP is new wave, indie pop with strategically-suffused rock. It requires translation that gives a suggestive nudge towards appreciation of its unique tonal beauty and catchy lyrics or one could find themselves distracted with others' negative views. Find that nudge by exploring one's own unique identity while you listen to 'Best Years' and you could find yourself addicted in no time. Frontman Dedric Clark puts it best: "'Bad Things', 'Best Years' and 'Get Over It' share the common thread of the strain of separation. Whether it be distance or mindset, these songs are an examination into the long-term effects of prolonged disconnection and the ways we deal with loneliness."