Tag: Jesus and Mary Chain

Nathan James Mills channels touches of Jesus and Mary Chain and a bit of A Place to Bury Strangers on his punky post-punk single “These Friends.” Crunchy, fuzzy guitar riffs accent and then drive the dynamics bolstered by a steady beat while Mills considers his relationships with his vices and other people as types of friendships. He lists a short cycle of identity steeped in hedonism in the choruses by asking what would have have to say in casual conversation, with whom he would have sex and would he do drugs while down on his luck and are those kinds of friendships with behaviors and social situations the kinds of friends that are better than misery? Later in the song he sings of losing a friend because maybe he was too caught up in that cycle of past times to be present for a real relationship that isn’t a self-destructive coping mechanism or a tool to facilitate the same because “dysfunction is so pure.” But the moment of clarity peeks in as a hint, as a suspicion with the line “If I ever saw the other side maybe I’d just sit down and cry.” Indeed over wasted time, over wasted opportunities for a life you actually want to have instead of what seems to make you feel alive for a few moments here and there and over the trail of psychological neglect and carnage you’ve left in your wake along the way. It’s a short song at two minutes thirty-one but it packs in a lot and invites exploring one’s own bad habits. Listen to “These Friends” on YouTube and connect with Nathan James Mills on Spotify.