The choice of the band name wasn’t the best idea of this folk rock quartet from Salt Lake City in the US state of Utah: The Backseat Lovers, meaning “back seat lovers” – that sounds quite suggestive of American provinces, where according to the cliché still have first sexual experiences be acquired predominantly in said rear regions of the parental car. The music by Jonas Swanson, Joshua Harmon, Juice Welch and KJ Ward is not at all rough and testosterone-driven, but full of sophistication and style.
With their second studio album “Waiting To Spill”, which has just been released by the big US label Capitol, the Backseat Lovers are embarking on an exciting journey (which will also lead to a short tour of German clubs in February/March). Because these ten songs don’t fit into any of the common American chart sounds, they’re actually almost too good for a mass audience. On the other hand, quality could also prevail in the case of this young band.
Streaming-Kings
The outstanding talent of the four backseat lovers as songwriters and instrumentalists was already indicated on their debut “When We Were Friends” from 2019. Here a band bravely dared to break out of the often very narrow guitar rock or neofolk circles – and still collected 200 million album streams according to the label.
“Waiting To Spill” could now continue this road to success. New songs like “Silhouette”, “Words I Used”, the Beatles-infected “Follow The Sound” or the wistful “Viciously Lonely” are even richer in melody, more ambitious and more complex. At the same time, the band builds in a lot of pretty barbs against the danger of melodious boredom. The vocals, which are at times reminiscent of Thom Yorke (Radiohead), whine at the right moment, only to radiate a comfortable melancholy again.
“We’ve grown a lot”
His main goal was “to do something that was honest and real, something that meant the world to me,” says singer/guitarist Harmon of the band’s goal from the Mormon state. Bassist Ward adds: “We’ve grown a lot, as band members and as individuals. It’s a very personal album and there was a lot of open dialogue and deep conversation in the studio.”
You believe that immediately. Despite all its youthful freshness and euphoria, “Waiting To Spill” has become an enormously mature album that now really exposes the somewhat vulgar band name as inappropriate.
02/24 Hamburg – bad
