Will Marshall
2020’s Brave Faces, Everyone tackled millennial angst, lower standards of living, lives spent in debt and a whole host more; as time’s gone on, they’ve expanded their remit to being angry at the state of the world and not just morose, but the terrific songwriting and lyricism remains intact. It all leads into this year’s Future Nausea, an incensed but oddly hopeful-sounding record that sees them evolving into a more heartland-rock oriented approach..
The piano and minimalist guitars that kick off the opening title track make clear just how much the band have evolved. Gone are their punk roots, but the change has been steady so this feels like the natural step, songs written for bigger rooms and audiences without sacrificing the lyrical quality. Second track and lead single ‘Good American’ is perhaps most emblematic of this, excoriating America’s treatment of its own citizens and veterans while getting a few kicks in at the decline of modern life, such as with its opening line of “every day is a mountain when you can’t tell which disaster to ignore”.
The new synth-led, heartland rock direction truly takes flight on ‘New Fears’, with upbeat drumming and melodic guitar lines backdropping a story of social collapse, images of limited-income couples having to argue over scraps of joy at the checkout all the way to nuclear armageddon destroying what little future was left for us. It’s an earworm, to be sure, its refrain of “I’m caught up with my new fears” custom built to incite mass singalongs in the bigger rooms they’re moving into.
But, for as bleak as Future Nausea gets, it seems that Spanish Love Songs still want to grasp glimmers of hope no matter how rooted in irony they might be. ‘Doom Tripping’ is shot through with swelling synths while singer Dylan Slocum intones “Now I’m feeling nihilistic / Come on, let me shop to fix it / I’m getting off people watching at the end / Am I killing myself or doom tripping?” but it takes just as many shots at the American healthcare system that fails ordinary Americans every day. ‘Shadowlands’ runs straight into Springsteen territory, a rollicking Americana-drenched tale of emotional and economic devastation in modern capitalist society.
Lyrically, this is Spanish Love Songs as usual, which is to say, brilliant. Slocum has a way of portraying hopelessness and rage through easily-relatable imagery, emotional devastation through tales of running out of medication or quietly watching your childhood home be repossessed by greedy banks. Musically it takes some big swings to move away from their punk roots entirely, rooting themselves anew in Americana, heartland rock and indie. For those more attached to those earlier works, it might sound jarring or less impactful at first but on repeat listens, Future Nausea reveals this is, once again, a brilliant album by one of modern emo’s most vital and depressing voices.