Heavy Feelings Conjures the Essence of Feelings of Not Belonging on No Wave Gothic Rock Single “Breather”

Heavy Feelings, photo courtesy the artists

Heavy Feelings puts into words a difficult feeling to convey with accuracy on the “Breather” single. The title suggests multiple meanings including merely being a person who breathes like all humans must but also a need to get a break from feeling the pressure to conform instead of just be allowed to be different. To feel like you have to explain something about the way you are when you shouldn’t have to. And that sense of being stifled for nothing. The line “Someday I’ll run out of ways to explain there’s nothing to fix, it’s always this way, can’t find the right things to say” perfectly sums up the existential exhaustion you can reach when it feels like you’re being interrogated and picked apart by normies that feel like they have to figure out you can’t be just like them even if you’re not demanding they be like you. The urgent melodies and echoing vocals in the chorus express perfectly a discordant mood that is getting a bit of catharsis in the song’s asymmetrical structure and willingness to sprawl past the edges of conventional songwriting methods. It as its own kind of hooks and like the lyrics illustrate perfectly it demands acceptance on its own terms. If you like your post-punk a little more unconventional this song and the Anatomy EP (released December 20, 2024) are what you should make the effort to take in. Listen to “Breather” on Spotify and follow Heavy Feelings at the links below.

Heavy Feelings on Amazing Radio

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Heavy Feelings Gives Voice to a Frustration With Lack of Commitment on the Noisy Post-punk of “Light Contact”

Heavy Feelings, photo courtesy the artists

Heavy Feelings is a Bristol, UK-based collaborative musical project centered around guitarist Ben Shillabeer who is a bit of a veteran of the Bristol music scene as a contributor to, among other musical concerns, Soeza, The John Parish Band and Empty Pools. The single “Light Contact” features the commanding vocals of Nadia Garofalo of the great Chicago post-punk band Ganser. Its cycling guitar riff establishes a mood of impending disaster or dissolution while Garofalo’s voice, reminiscent of PJ Harvey circa Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, adds her own layer of grit to a song that sounds like harnessed menace and chaos. The song seems to be about, based partially on the title, the habit of many people to not commit to a course of action, a way of life, a project, relationships or much of anything hoping for the proper circumstances to come along that never really will in providing an auspicious time to take the dive into something that could be important even if for a short time. The song with its crackling and and intense energy seems to reflect an anxiety over an all too common misplaced lack of faith that can paralyze one’s effectiveness as a human or to even live a life that might be more fulfilling than playing it safe and being ready to bail when something requires more of you than casual interest. Listen to “Light Contact” on Spotify, follow Heavy Feelings at the links below and give a listen to the debut Heavy Feelings album Power⚡Reflection which released on June 3, 2022.

Heavy Feelings on Instagram

Heavy Feelings on Amazing Radio