The Boston-to-Los Angeles Townies dropped their latest, six-song EP titled Speak With Your Chest, following their debut LP Of This I Am Certain just a year ago. The new EP lives up to their reputation as savvy punky, broc rocky, emo heroes and was wonderfully mixed and produced by Billy Mannino (who also produced projects by Oso Oso, Macseal, Equipment, among others) under new record label Brain Synthesizer.
“Dissecting” opens the project like a shout, as hinted by Townies’ vocalist and guitarist Tom himself, after I’d mentioned that it spoke out to me in particular by its name alone. It is an unthrottled, frustrated, focused energy. A hot-night, summer joyride. It showcases many of the band’s strengths and hallmarks: cool drums, sick riffs, and a creative lyricism that compels you to sing and shout too.
“Shopcat,” the second track on the EP, is equally moving, progressively uplifting, and quite the earworm. You hear it once, you hear it all day. But that’s a welcome thing because it comes across like the voice of a supportive friend with such sweet lines like “shed the shell you’ve been living inside so you find all the love you’ve been missing.”
One can’t help but immediately move about, if not in place, then about the room, the moment “Top Ramen” begins to play. Lyrically regretful and honest with lines like “if I could do all this again, I bet I’d do it all differently—I bet I wouldn’t change a thing.” What’s more is that this song acts like top ramen spilling onto a plate, as a song that sets up what comes next. Because “Top Ramen” seamlessly transitions into “Plate” sliding from a feverish pitch into a contemplative drum groove, joined by a somber bassline, and uplifted by a dreamy riff. Together it all evokes a soaring, starry wistfulness, crashing forth as a cathartic, tearing, confessional force.
The song “Same Story” contains some of the most evocative, kaleidoscopic lines in the project like “tracing your heart with a bright blue lining” and “love’s in the air but it’s such a lopsided hue” and satisfying wordplay in its chorus about rhythm that both band kids and English nerds might enjoy (I am both). It’s in this danceable song too that you’ll hear the EP’s namesake shouted out toward its end, in a call to courage and sincerity, to go after what you really want before it’s too late.
Finally, “Bleachers” juxtaposes a joyfully dynamic, country-esque melody with emotionally bittersweet words. No doubt at a show you’ll want to circle the pit hand in hand with a partner and sing and shout along. A song reflecting on the unfortunate danger of honesty and its sometimes necessary pain. It’s also another showcase of clever lyricism. “I was nothing if not honest. I’m an honest man—now I’m nothing to her.”
The EP cohesively lives up to its name, in every track, as a command to be audacious and true to your desires—to speak with your chest, because it’s what you want to do, have to do, to make it through increasingly hard times. Speak With Your Chest is available now on any streaming platform and on vinyl on brainsynthesizer.com
The Doomscroll 