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Album Review: Lost Cousins’ In Scenery (2019)

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Lost Cousins’ recently dropped debut album In Scenery creates a mind trickling experience by bringing together colorful psychedelic sounds and life journey experiences to compose an art that is full of foreign elements—complex right? But complexity is what to expect when listening to this album because it is Lost Cousins’ complex sound and lyrical nuances that make In Scenery unique. An underlying feeling of being mentally lost is created over the span of 9 tracks and 31 minutes, however it all fuses together to make an abstraction concrete. This can be explained best through the Lost Cousins’ band name.

            In an interview with Music Mushing & Such, Lost Cousins’ explain that “because we all left friends and family in our respective homes, we felt a sense of new community, but also the loss of another. The name ‘Lost Cousins’ came from those feelings… feeling connected to people outside your physical environment, who you might not have communicated with in a while.”—this feeling is exactly what lingers throughout In Scenery.

            This Canadian four-piece psyche-rock band create their psychedelic radiations through their very own experiences (moving across country/ province) in which is used as the ground work for their music. Starting out as university students in the small city of Kingston Ontario, Cam Duffin-drummist and lyricist, Lloyd McArton-guitarist/saxophonist, Thomas Dashney-keyboardist and Dylan Cantlon Hay on bass guitar all came together with similar experiences of leaving their homes to pursue their education at Queens University. All band members are not what you would call “city boys”, since they all came from rural landscapes. Therefore, In Scenery acts as tribute to the natural landscapes the band members miss since moving to Toronto in 2015. What really fascinates me most is that not only do all the members of Lost Cousins contribute to the vocals in their songs, but they also compose their own music and lyrics in which they ultimately produced In Scenery.

            The first track on the album “Stay” prepares you for Lost Cousins’ multifaceted journey by incorporating psychedelic sounds and indie in a head on collision with lyrical nuances. The track starts out with a reverb, synths, and a looping electric twinkling that sounds like you are being pulled into a temporary colorful surrounding filled with foreign elements; however, when the chorus strikes with its upbeat tempo it makes you want to bob your head to its naturally warm percussions. Throughout the song it goes in and out of illusional momentary landscapes that set you up for the rest of their audacious album. When I first heard this track, I couldn’t stop thinking about an unexplained psychological scenario—when driving home after a long day at work, I sometimes ask myself “how the hell did I get home so fast?” It is the feeling of consciously being aware of where you are going and how you are getting there, but only momentarily aware of your surroundings. This unexplained psychedelic experience remains through the lyrical nuances in this track— “up above without following/ another one gone/ open up again/ oh I wanted to stay but I knew it was over.” It psychologically pulls you into its musical and lyrical compositions, but then throws you back out into a nothingness then repeats the process all over again creating an abstract feeling of being lost.

            The next track on the album, “Mindmaker”, doesn’t help make it any more concrete. What is interesting about this track is that it was the first track Lost Cousins’ wrote for this album. With cymbals crashing, heavy percussions, reverbs, synths, and electric guitar riffs, it takes you on a contrasting journey through the intellect. It is about a battle within the mind to reach an inner balance between urban city and rural vibes. With lyrics such as “All of the space you can’t occupy/ It’s heaven and time” in the first verse contrasting with “All of the colors within your mind/ It’s never divine” in the second verse, captures the midst of the intellectual battle between the rural open spaces and the celestial city lights that are engaged in a “Mindmaker bodyshaker” phenomenon. The end of the track finishes with fading electrical guitar scaling that leads into the next song which reveals the solution to the battle—a “City Escape.”  

            “Trails”, a ballad that is soft and progressively gets busy, is poetically enchanting. The soft piano keys descend under silvery vocals that sound like drizzles of rain. It all comes together when drum sticks click together and paired off with a piercing saxophone alto to create an organic environment. My favorite line in this song is “I know this is a rocky part/ Throw away the albums we’ll stand naked in the park” which resonates with Lost Cousins’ overall sound. Because they create their music with their very own instrumentation, they can create the exact same sounds that is heard on their album when playing live— “Screw recording equipment! because this band will still sound organically delicious even if they are performing live… in the park…naked”

            Although Lost Cousins’ maintain their psyche-electronic sound throughout most of their album, they finish it with an alternative texture combined with hidden electronic elements. The last song on the album, “Nothing” can appear as literally nothing when it gets busy with its layering textures of alternative and electronic-rock, but the band complete control over the busying layers it what pulls everything together. The sound relates to the lyrical nuances that shape the song ultimately especially in the line “It’s never nothing”—therefore causing you to scratch your head and realizing… “okay wait it is something”. It is a beautiful metaphor for someone being lost but finds something or someone to be grounded into. Like that lost cousin you haven’t seen in forever, and even though you reconnect with them over Facebook, Skype or even in a letter it still means something.  

In Scenery is like perceiving an abstract piece of art that has absolutely no existence to it; however, its contrasting vibrant and dark colors, gentle and harsh brush strokes blend all together to create a piece that is ultimately and explicitly concrete.

-Maria

Album Review: Said The Whale, Cascadia (2019)

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By Michaela Maxey

Said the Whale, Cascadia album cover

Said the Whale has stepped outside their comfort zone in their astonishing new album Cascadia. While originally having mixtures of electric rock and folk from frontmen Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester on their last album As Long As Your Eyes Are Wide, each track on Cascadia moves between alt-rock, indie, and folk. Despite differing sounds, all tracks advocate for the same thing — love. Cascadia takes you on a winding road in its discovery of love in all its variations and imperfections while paying homage to the beautiful land itself. Like the varying cultures and flourishes of art from city to city in the bioregion of Cascadia, Said the Whale’s Cascadia varies from track to track, never settling into a specific sound and mimicking the beauty of diversity of this region.

The first track opens with a few piano keys and strums from guitars over a fuzzy background, almost as if the band is testing out the instruments before the song starts. Then the drums come in and set the beat. Worcester offers short lyrics, each line like a solid punch through the instruments that places an importance on what he’s saying. He opens with “Wake up, wake up/ Wake in the sound of the rising sun/See a bright light shine on the lions.” Each line acts as a call to action, to pay attention to the natural world around you. As the chorus comes in Worcester sings, “Time makes all things fall together”, and if anyone knows this it’s Said the Whale. They’ve been together since 2007 and have seen one another grow in the most personal ways possible: getting married, pains of miscarriages, and having kids. Despite all this, the trio of Ben Worcester, Tyler Bancroft, and Jaycelyn Brown has remained strong. Indeed, time does make all things fall together and acts as a running line through this album.

For artists like Said the Whale who tour for months at a time and are away from their families and home, love becomes essential in grounding them in their identities and in their homeland. In “Love Don’t Ask”, the band intertwines love as a pet-name and love the feeling so that the listener simultaneously thinks of both, making it inescapable. With a strong and consistent beat brought together by drums, guitar, and piano, the lyrics mimic this strength with a love that can “brave together/ uninspired in spite of the fires.” Although their may be moments of weakness, which can be heard in the disgruntled piano chimes in the song, this love has an end goal: “a simple life alone with you beside me would be paradise.” The next track that explores love, “Level Best”, is written by Bancroft to his son and underscores the lengths he’ll go to for him, “If you need a million dollars by tomorrow/ I will rob a bank to do my level best.”  With hard strums of guitars and strong vocals that enunciate every word, it becomes impossible to miss what Bancroft has to say. He definitely sets the bar HIGH, making it hard for any parent or lover to follow this up.  In “Love Always”, Said the Whale offers a creepy feeling to open with— just the guitar strumming, then vocals that echo making Worcester feel far away. As the chorus begins, the drums come in and offer a much more grounding sound that ends the echoing of the lyrics and brings Worcester back to Earth. Essentially, this song advocates that love is always the answer to whatever the issue is, and if we can remember that then we can solve anything. Most importantly though, there’s the element of time in all these songs. Nothing happens right away, but always looks towards a future that only knowledge over time can bring.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to love, however. In “Shame”, Said the Whale explores what it means to screw up. In an interactive phone hotline promoting the album, the band describes “Shame” as a “powerful commentary about being a man in 2018 and the importance of listening to women.” This is important because there are so many stigmas revolving around masculinity, especially when it comes to being in a relationship. You can be sensitive, but not too sensitive. Attached, but not too attached. It’s a hard balance to juggle, and a lot of the times results in messing up a good thing. In terms of sound, the song may start off with a grunge/alt-rock feel, but it continuously slows down throughout, leading to an ending silence as the shame eats the person up. And this is where “UnAmerican” works perfectly with “Shame” as it also aims in flipping the notion of masculinity: “I wanna write you a love song/ I wanna get all the words wrong.” What?! A sensitive guy?! I didn’t know they made those anymore!  Being kind and sensitive, and being a male on top of that, is about as un-American as you can get because society constantly places value on being a tough male figure, both mentally and physically. With songs like these advocating how crazy this idea is, it’s only a matter of time until this stigma ends. I’ll be waiting!

At all moments of Cascadia, there is the undertone of the deep love the band has for the land. Many songs offer images of mountains and rivers throughout, and the band gives full tracks dedicated to their Vancouver home like the title track “Cascadia” and “Gambier Island Green”. Ultimately, this album takes us through the winding roads of Vancouver and traces all variations of love across a modern time (love for a child, love for a significant other, and love for the land). Although certain things may not work out in the moment, it is important to remember that time makes all things fall together. All we can do is let time work its magic to bring us back to the people and the places that mean the absolute most to us.

“Superstar” by MARINA (Love + Fear, 2019)

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by Danielle Bulhoes

Marina Lambrini Diamandis, also known as by her stage names of MARINA or Marina and the Diamonds, is a Welsh singer and songwriter who has a long career in music. With about a decade of experience under her belt as well as a few awards, MARINA is set to release her fourth album this year, labelled Love + Fear, with “Superstar” being one of the songs released to the public.

Lyrically, the song is your usual love ballad, depicting a relationship that is supportive, accepting and affectionate. This song should feel a little happier than it does, but thanks to the creative choice to accompany the lyrics with almost gloomy piano-like EDM, the lyrics sort of come off as obsessive and dependent on the subject of the song, maybe even a little stalkerish with lyrics like these:

“And I, I know that you never sleep
Oh, so impossible to dream
When you’re far away from me
Oh, I, I’m all you could ever need
Oh, so impossible to breathe”

Pretty off-putting right? But I have to admit, I can see the other side of this coin too. If I focus on the words, I can imagine a happy couple who are so in love with each other that their worlds revolve around the other. They make each other stronger and happier, capable of taking on life’s challenges together as a team. The singer obviously cares deeply for the subject of the song, calling them their ‘superstar’, a point of strength and admiration.

“You never judge me for any of my fears
Never turn your back, always keep my body near
All of the days that we spend apart
My love is a planet revolving your heart

….

We’ll stick together
Make it through the storm
You and I
Whoever said we couldn’t have it all?”


This song is a contradiction. One one hand, you have a gloomy, borderline spooky and tense song that hints at dangerous obsession. On the other, you can hear the singer’s deep affection for their partner and the love they share for each other. It’s a very appropriate song to introduce MARINA’s latest album, , Love & Fear, coming out this April.

Jessica Pratt, “This Time Around” (Quiet Signs, 2019)

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By Allesandro Rotondi

“This Time Around” opens with a somber yet mystical chord cycle that encircles itself in the opening four bars. Jessica Pratt’s voice eases into the guitar strumming, like the songbird she sings about slowing its flight into a landing. Pratt sings softly to the major seventh chords that encompass the song and provide its reflective atmosphere. Pratt uses these chords effectively throughout the song, and it’s often considered one of the dreamiest chord qualities due to its open sounding interval construction. The major seventh chord contains the farthest interval of unique notes, before repeating the same note again as an octave, or perfect eighth. Because of this, the sound is always reaching up, and never quite arriving. This is the reason for the reflective and longing nature of the chord, and likely the reason Pratt made it the primary chord choice on her palette of desired sounds.

Pratt’s major seventh chord strumming repeatedly spins like a merry-go-round, encircling itself in a seemingly endless way. That is, until the resolution that presents itself in the chorus. The chorus hits hard, as she inverts the chord progression of the verses backwards, and resolves beautifully into another major seventh chord in the root of the home key. Pratt sings “I don’t wanna find that I’ve been in marching under the crueler side of the fight”, answering the reflective music with a lyrical theme of reaching for conclusions. But more specifically, it’s Pratt’s apprehensions as to whether or not she’s prepared to hear them. This song hits home for obvious reasons—no one is ever prepared for less than ideal but inevitable conclusions to life’s many challenges. Much like Pratt, it makes me want to cry. This time around, we have a chance to avoid them again, or face them. After all, there are only so many times around in life.


Album Review: Jessica Pratt, Quiet Signs (2019)

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By Allesandro Rotondi

Jessica Pratt has one of the most unique singing voices I’ve ever heard. Quiet Signs is her third album effort, and running at 27 minutes, it is a brief but welcoming glimpse into the philosophical mind of an enigmatic soul. She comes off as delicate and raw, but well-informed about everything she sings about. Pratt’s music is like an all-seeing eye on the world, peeking around every corner and offering insight about what it has seen. Her sound embodies modern folk, even though she doesn’t like the idea of being pinned to any genre. There is no pinning here, however—Quiet Signs is a folk adventure with melded elements of psychedelia and electronic music. What’s brilliant about her, is the way she builds a track upon these styles, with the minimal amount of instruments. In “Fare Thee Well,” Pratt’s bedtrack is straight comping acoustic guitar, with lead vocal and light backing vocals on the upper harmony. But built upon that foundation, however, is a single-note organ, mellotron staccato (or, quickly struck) chords, and at the end, a crooning flute part. These elements are what sets the mood for Pratt’s thinly textured, but aesthetically rich sound throughout the whole album.

Pratt and her producer Al Carlson clearly know how to create an atmosphere that perfectly suits the desires of her music. Upon first listen, I thought her voice was tampered with in post production to give it that wistfully light tone, and the unique style in which she melds words together when she sings. I figured she had sped the tape down, recorded her vocals, and then sped it back to normal speed to pitch her voice up with it. This was especially true after hearing her speaking voice on a KEXP performance, which I thought was surprisingly different than her singing voice. But alas, that is her real voice, and a beautiful one at that. Her light vocals sway, climb, and fall, with the innocence of a young child, and the consoling wisdom of a grandmother. The album’s weightless feeling is largely attributed to there being no bass or bottom end instruments at any point, besides the piano on “Opening Night” and “Crossing.” Her guitar playing crackles like feet on top of autumn leaves, like her almost fizzling strumming on “Here My Love.”

Much more than on her previous two albums, Pratt employs artificial (or perhaps, authentic) tape hiss and reverb to her instruments and vocals, greatly influencing the breezy, and open-chambered feeling that this album possesses. It’s almost as though without your full attention, the music and contour could simply drift away with the wind. Her guitar has a chorus effect on it during many of the tracks, which slightly detunes the sound of the guitar with itself, giving it an electromagnetic wavy feel, reminiscent of a Mac DeMarco record. Pratt’s instrumental palette also consists of woodwinds like lilting flutes, synthesizers like mellotron and organ, synthesized orchestral strings, piano, tambourine, and reverb-drenched vocals and guitar to top it off. Pratt tastefully picks which instruments will best suit the song, and never has more than three or four accompanying her vocals at a time. Her chord choices favour major and minor sevenths, likely the most open sounding and dreamy chord choices any folk guitarist could desire. This is especially true on “Poly Blue,” one of the catchiest and most heartfelt tunes on the album, with melodies and hooks that are likely to follow you everywhere you go. The songs’ keys are more often major than minor, but her chord choices often allude to minor, and the musical expressions profess an often somber feeling. As a songwriter, it’s a difficult task to make a major keyed song sound minor, and vice versa, like Pratt does on “Silent Song.”

This is her first album recorded outside of her home and in an authentic studio, and it also sounds the least like it. More than previously, Pratt’s production style feels like lo-fi, analog, underground folk. However, it’s clearly intentional, and Pratt has learned a thing or two over the years about how to set her words, chords, and melodies, into an atmosphere that provides the most comfortable walls for them to live within. Though Pratt has a wide range of influences, like 1970’s Marianne Faithfull and John Martyn, her musical execution personally reminds me of Paul Simon’s Songbook album, or something K.K. Slider would sing in the coffeeshops of the Animal Crossing game series. Her music also wouldn’t be out of place in the season two soundtrack of The End of the F***ing World (your move, Netflix).

Though Pratt hails from Los Angeles, her music is less reflective of California’s sunny ideals, as so often portrayed by pop culture, and sounds more like Pratt singing around a campfire after sunset, as the wind lightly blows the pacific ocean waves onto the darkened sandy shores. A quiet reflection, almost. I feel comforted by her music, in a melancholic way that is difficult to pinpoint. Pratt addresses issues and hardships that one has to face in their lifetime, but in doing so, assures the listener that when it’s all said in done, everything will be okay. In “Poly Blue,” Pratt sings “Please understand the changes that a boy has had to climb / For what in time, leaves him always late to fly,” assuring the listener that though the subject’s metaphorical flight is delayed, he still flies nonetheless. She made me feel better about things I wasn’t actually concerned about before I heard the record, but left me with the sensation of new experiences and adventures. I feel a little bit more out of my shell after having listened to Quiet Signs. My introduction to Jessica Pratt’s music has been a pleasant one, and like a new friend that pulls your arm onward to new adventures and places, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Marianas Trench, “The Killing Kind” (Phantoms, 2019)

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by Chelsea Ives

“We all float down here.” – a line which never fails to make my skin crawl. So imagine my surprise when I heard it while listening to Marianas Trench’ new song “The Killing Kind”. The Canadian pop-rock band released their newest album, Phantoms on March first. This is the band’s fifth studio album, and “The Killing Kind” is the final song on the album.

I was intrigued when the song first started – it finally sounds different than all their other music! The song starts with harpsichord, and slowly introduces a triangle – it almost sounds like a more up-beat but less-scary Jaws theme song. Josh Ramsay’s voice starts it off quiet and low, until the song picks up with the classic reference to IT.

But unfortunately the song is also a classic – classic because it sounds like every other song Mariana’s Trench has released. The song borrows the band’s theme from their past two albums, referencing lines from other songs or albums in each song. “The Killing Kind,” as the outro concludes with the line, “just hush, Eleonora,” to blend back into the intro track, “Eleonora”. While this album-as-one-extended-song move was exciting in their 2011 album, Ever After, it misses the mark in Phantoms because there’s no clear thematic train to link the songs together.

“The Killing Kind,” builds into the same “Astoria” sounding-scream by Ramsay, and then an alien-siren comes in, before becoming sweeping orchestral music, then the band harmonizes, and then one final smashing-together of all the sounds with Josh Ramsay’s voice before what you think is the end. But then, the song comes around full force again. They just don’t know when to quit.

Altogether, the song was an excellent choice for the close of the album, as it does seem like the band was trying to go in a different direction than in their other albums. The horror-esque theme with references to Poe’s poetry makes “The Killing Kind” intriguing, but ultimately, I think it ends as a six minute roller coaster of instrumental mash-ups which just leaves the listener nauseous.

Marianas Trench, “The Killing Kind,” off their 2019 album, Phantoms.

“Con Calma” Daddy Yankee & Snow (2019)

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Daddy Yankee and Snow in “Con Calma”

Have you ever heard of a cover that includes the original artist? Hell no! —it is extremely rare! Daddy Yankee, the Puerto Rican reggaeton king, has released a remake of Snow’s 1992 hit song “Informer” with Snow himself called “Con Calma.”

 I’m going to be completely honest, when I first heard this track I thought it was going to be another cover that yet again butchers an original. However, Yankee did more than just recreate a blast from the past, he included Canadian rapper, Snow, (that’s right Snow is Canadian—representing!) into his music to create a rich blend of today’s modern music of dance hall and reggaeton with early 90’s beats.

In an interview with Apple Music Yankee said that the 1992 hit “was one of my favorite songs growing up, and to do this the right way I needed the guy to be on the record.”

Being a person that absolutely hates remakes I appreciated what Yankee has so kindly gestured towards. Not only has Yankee included Snow on his track, but also Snow hasn’t appeared in the music scene for over 25 years and to appear with Yankee (let me remind you the creator of reggaeton) will do nothing more than place Snow in the music scene in a new, modernized and innovative way.

“Con Calma” is a track that reminds you that warm weather is right around the corner. It freshly squeezes the mixture of Snow’s vocals, which can be considered the definition of dance hall, and Daddy Yankee’s dembow rhythm to create a tropical holiday in your speakers. You cannot listen to this song without looking down and seeing both of your hips swaying back and forth. The upbeat sound of this track works well with the lyrics too because it is about admiring a girl for her mesmerizing dance moves.

I could see this track being one to creeps its way to the top charts internationally because of its hot temperature. With the weather heating up, I can only image people driving around with the top down and blaring this re-imagined old school hit. Thank you Yankee for yet another surprise! 

“Middle Child” – J. Cole (2019)

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By Anthony Trocchi

Middle Child is the newest instalment in J. Cole’s discography and personally one of my favourites. Throughout the track, Cole can be seen rapping about his differences from other current rappers, as well as drug abuse in the rap game. In the lines “I do not snort powder, I might take a sip/I might hit the blunt, but I’m liable to trip/I ain’t poppin’ no pill, but you do as you wish.” Cole suggests that while he himself doesn’t participate in drugs commonly used by other rappers, he understands the addiction and doesn’t necessarily care or judge someone for what they do. In terms of the name of the track, Cole is referring to his place in the current state of hip hop. Cole doesn’t necessarily associate himself with the younger or older generation but rather sees himself in between. His production value and beats usually appeal more to younger hip hop fans, while his lyricism and message is often more appreciated by old hip hop heads. He suggests this in the lines “To the OGs, I’m thankin’ you now/Was watchin’ you when you was pavin’ the ground/I copied your cadence, I mirrored your style”

In terms of the actual sound of the album, the beat steals the show. Produced by T – Minus the sampled trumpet sounds repeated throughout the song create a glorious sound which blend well with T- Minus use of high hats. Cole also uses various flows to create an overall hard hitting track, which he has always done so masterfully.

“Dancing With A Stranger” – Sam Smith and Normani

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By Michaela Maxey

I’ve loved Sam Smith since I heard him on Disclosure’s song “Latch”, so I was super excited to find out that he released a new track. When I found out it was a collab with Normani, the songstress alongside Khalid in “Love Lies”, I couldn’t wait to hear it and had high expectations for it.

And I can happily announce that all my expectations were met.

The track is nothing short of dance music. It opens with finger snaps over a fuzzy background until Smith sings, then the beat comes into focus and falls into quick and repetitive patterns. Even the lyrics are repetitive, ultimately matching the consistent beat. As Smith sings, “I don’t want to be alone tonight/ It’s pretty clear that I’m not over you”, Normani responds with, “I wasn’t even going out tonight/ But, boy, I need to get you off my mind.” Then they replicate, “I don’t wanna be alone tonight, alone tonight, alone tonight”, making it easy to find the similarities in the lyrics and join in with them. Despite having melancholy lyrics, the beat makes the song so easy to dance to, and there’s so much potential for remixes that the song will easily fit into any club scene. The two later come together in a harmony that is nothing short of masterful. While Smith expertly varies in pitch range, Normani offers smooth and velvety vocals that ultimately balance each other out into perfection.

Although this song is not necessarily revolutionizing in dance music, it’s catchy and solid in its delivery of vocals and beat. Ultimately, the two create an atmosphere that allows any listener to place themselves in the club that Smith and Normani offer – dancing with a stranger in an attempt to forget a certain person.


Jonas Brothers, “Sucker” (2019)

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By: Julia Ristoska

“S.O.S!” The Jonas Brothers are “Burnin’ up” all the social media feeds as they announced they were reuniting after their six long year break up. They dropped the news unexpectedly, and surprised their fans with their new single “Sucker” at midnight on March 1st. I bet you all the college girls were popping champagne when the clock struck twelve. This was a celebration of a new and improved Jonas that we all been waiting for. The humorous brothers uploaded a nostalgic Instagram post where they recreated their famous “Oh how the tables have turned” meme. The party confetti burst and the banner that writes “Hello again” rolls down which officially confirms their reunion.

Warning! Don’t let your teenage dreams run too wild since it will just lead to disappointment. The title of Mrs. Jonas have been taken and seems like the boys are happy with their decision.  Along with the Jonas Brothers we have their wives, Danielle Jonas, Priyanka Chopra and Sophie Turner feature in the Alice in Wonderland inspired music video. The former Disney stars are now more mature and no longer singing about lost love and break-ups. They left behind their more edgier power pop sound and replaced it with an R&B/ pop vibe. Which gives me the Maroon 5 feels. Nick’s falsetto and pillowy soft voice took centre stage, while Joe took over the catchy chorus. This song was definitely meant to be placed on the top 40. I mean the pop hooks, hand claps and whistling are the perfect recipe for a catchy tune. Their cheeky lyrics would have been scandalous for such pure boys to sing 6 years ago. They are now given the freedom to express their emotions without being monitored by Disney. The fans who also grew up with them can also appreciate their more risque lyrics, and not be so concerned about their purity rings.

Nick confessed in James Corden Carpool karaoke that this comeback was kept a secret for 8 months. This bomb that they dropped on us definitely brought back some good old feels, and childhood memories. It’s good to finally have all the brothers playing music, and harmonizing back together again.