Alright: I’m Doing This to Myself 12″

Description

North Carolinas Alright have been doing this to each other for a while. Vocalist/guitarist Sarah Blumenthal and bassist Josh Robbins led up to their debut LP with several short but measured bursts of fuzzy indie-punk. In those brief moments, like their debut 7 and 2018s On the Outs EP, the band navigates the confusion that follows saying what you mean and being resistant to other calculated risks. Their debut LP has them taking the largest leap of faith yet: theyre advocating for, and antagonizing, themselves for the sake of art. Its no wonder the end product is titled Im Doing This to Myself.
Produced by Kyle Pulley (Kississippi, Thin Lips) and mastered by Will Killingsworth, Myself builds on Alrights blueprint by fortifying their solid foundation. Lapse and Wild Dunes are two slices of thorny guitar pop that admit the love we want is often not what we get, especially when drastic changes are being asked of us as an unwelcome compromise. As this is an Alright record, the unease that comes with sudden change gets matched with wobbly soundtracking, like the thrumming rhythm section on Tiptoe or the nuclear blast of No Good, which entertains the idea of intrusive thoughts being entire people. When the action pauses for brief shifts in the playbookthe fuzz gets lifted on Dewdrops to make room for a call-and-response verse, for exampleAlrights drawing attention to a different anxiety. Take a listen to the closer, Steady, where the bands yearning for stability reaches a creative and cathartic peak. While the choices we make often define the aftermath, everybody just wants to find a balance between whats done and whats to come. Thats something Alright did to themselves, but also together. (James Cassar)