Brooke Binion – Queen City Sounds and Art

“Hurt Forever” showcases theWorst’s ability to deliver blistering melodies as expressions of a sensitivity abused by bad faith actors far too many times. But also not being willing to lose that vulnerability that makes one open to oneself and others in spite the of the risk of running afoul of people who think you’ll just take their abuse without comment. Joshua James Hand’s video treatment for the song has Brooke Binion in a mental health facility with other people also often stuck in such places when family and society doesn’t know what to do with people who have hit some sort of breaking point often as a normal reaction to extraordinarily harmful situations. We see the stark conditions and the surreal quality of that experience until that imagery and that of being in a rock band is juxtaposed perhaps revealing how creative work and pursuing one’s non-destructive passions can be a way out of that state as a positive way to build the psychological infrastructure to sustain a functional existence. Maybe rock music as therapy is a bit on the nose but it really works here because there is no suggestion that having creative outlets for your psychic agony is going to solve all your problems or soothe the tender places where you still hurt from a lifetime of abuse, self-inflicted and otherwise. When the end of the song comes and Binion is cloaked in a plastic drape singing quietly with only an acoustic about a yearning for genuine connection after much of the rest of the song raging with channeled frustration at having no control over one’s life and no meaningful agency it hits perhaps hardest because it’s where the anger and furious energy are set aside to express what everyone wants and needs with the simplicity of an unvarnished truth. Watch the video for “Hurt Forever” on YouTube and follow theWorst at the links below where you can also listen to the rest of The Worst’s new album Yes Regrets with released on 6/2/22.

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The Worst’s single “Monomania” from its forthcoming second album Yes Regrets (out June 3 on RascalZ RecordZ) combines determined punk rock grit with power pop tunefulness. Singer Brooke Binion often gets compared to Joan Jett for a good reason because she has that sort of forcefulness but tonally her vocals are more reminiscent to these ears of one of Jett’s former bandmates in the Runaways: Lita Ford. The latter even on her more metal solo albums had/has a huskily melodic power in her voice. For the music video Joshua James Hand shows Binion performing on a dimly yet colorfully lit stage juxtaposed to running through fields of snow into a forest as though running from something and getting lost only to find a mirror that stops her in her tracks confronted by the person responsible for that desperate state of things. The song, as the title suggests, is about how we often pursue something thinking it’s what we want and need having convinced ourselves of the viability of that thing because it worked for us before. Specifically the chorus of “you go chasing feelings/you’ll be sorry every time” speaks directly to the cycle of undermining our lives that everyone can find relatable if you’re the kind of person that has a passionate streak. It can be hard to admit to your shortcomings and mistakes but this song by The Worst makes it somehow seem okay and absolutely necessary even if you stumble. Everyone does. Watch the video for “Monomania” on YouTube, follow The Worst at the links below and look out for Yes Regrets out June 3 with production by Will Holland and includes guest drumming from Nikki Glaspie (Beyoncé, The Nth Power) and features members of Morphine, The Distillers and SeepeopleS.