Album Review: Here’s That Feeling by Wrong Man
Album artwork for Here’s That Feeling by Wrong Man
What strikes you immediately from listening to Wrong Man, is the feeling that this is a band, playing together and recording as a unit. You can feel the room they played in as a part of the recording, the way the sound bounces off the walls and especially as they come together for the big choruses. The instrumentation is at times quite sparse, and that space itself is a voice in its own right, it amplifies the vulnerability of the words, as vocalist Bjorn describes these feelings of self-loathing, disappointment, and unbridled emotion.
Wrong Man are a group from Ghent, Belgium. Made up of members from Oathbreaker, Partisan, and Rise And Fall, post-hardcore in the truest sense. Prior to “Here’s That Feeling”, they released two EPs which transported you back to the 90s with sounds reminiscent of bands like Quicksand or Fugazi. The music is rooted in this love for the sounds they grew up with and finding a way to highlight it, whilst also finding opportunities to blend some of the sounds they have explored since. The leads are blues-inspired, but then there are moments that evoke more of a post-punk melodic style, courtesy of guitarist Cedric’s work in Partisan, which contrasts the grit of the vocals. This album doesn’t feel like some large departure but more a refinement of the sound the band has been building for the last couple of years, with this record their best foot forward.
The opener Loose Ends is big, and straight to the point. Immediately you are grabbed by how distinct each instrument is. The bass is front and centre in the verse, it lets the guitar go on an entirely different adventure. Occasionally, both come together, and you feel how big the full band is. The lyrics are full of self-loathing remarks, ruminating on what went wrong and how things were left so unresolved. “The well of words has run dry.” There’s nothing left to say but a need for closure remains. Those moments of the full band's sound come to fruition in the chorus as it’s one unified sound with the passionate vocals leading the charge and the tone changes from confusion to despair before the next verse. This is a strong introduction to the record, yet it feels like they are holding back, like there is an extra level they could get to bring the intensity of the words together with the music.
The mood then shifts for It Won't Wash Off. It has an eerie feeling, and they once again create such an atmosphere with the song. The music is chugging along, creating this movement to the track, like the subject is pacing around or trying to escape something. “There’s this feeling, I can’t shake it.” is yelled frantically numerous times, each time feeling more frenzied than the last. In the final portion of the song, a saxophone is introduced which wails over the stressful instrumentation, evoking this feeling of the subject spiralling. The music gets more manic as the line “Here’s that feeling.” repeats. This song is an early highlight as it manages to capture the mood it's going for instantly and develops in an interesting way. The addition of the saxophone really heightened the uneasy feeling and brought everything together into a stressful closing stretch.
The lead single for this record was Exit Strategy, and it’s easy to see why. It’s by far the most complete song on the album, with the inclusion of guest vocalist Jeremy Bolm of Touché Amoré being the icing on the cake. The song deals with dejection, an idea that they’re written off, damaged goods, and finding acceptance in never facing the issues that haunt you. Jeremy takes the second verse to ruminate on these days, perhaps matching it with the isolation that comes with being on the road on tour, making it so difficult to maintain relationships when you can be thousands of miles away. “I can’t slow down,” he exclaims.
Blue is another track that showcases some memorable bass playing, especially in the lead up to and including the chorus. The guitars are very measured, leaving a lot of room between strums. As it progresses, it features some of the only prominent layered guitar tracks on the record, another example of the way they use space, which makes these busier moments even more impactful.
Around the middle of the record, some of the tracks start to blend together. It’s not that these songs aren’t good or interesting in their own right, but there’s rarely a departure from the main sound causing them to stand out less. It feels like the band are stuck to the same BPM, and that can dull the impact at points, especially with such a passionate vocal performance, that feels like such a waste. Mystic Eye starts off in an interesting way. The band comes together and quickly builds to then suddenly cut off, leaving the vocals to cut through on their own. This song unfortunately loses steam fairly quickly as the chorus comes in with the refrain, “It don’t matter”. There’s a lack of energy to the playing, which means when they all come together for what should be a hard-hitting moment, it just falls flat. This is perhaps even more noticeable as they do this exact thing so effectively earlier on in the record.
The closer, Ripped Open, is split into two parts. The first is exactly what this portion of the album sorely needed. Kicking off as a sort of blues jam with the gain pushed to the max, it’s a jolt of energy and just plain fun, the band sound locked in, and we even get a fired up guitar solo to close this portion, before it all comes crashing down. If part 1 was the victorious party to end things, part 2 is the sobering clean-up after. It picks up the pieces and rebuilds slowly, being the longest track on the record, as it gradually increases in tension, the instrumentation becomes more biting. They go on to sum up the ideas explored on this record. They haven’t necessarily resolved any of the issues at hand, but there does come a form of acceptance in this incredibly bleak conclusion to the album.
Whilst there are portions of this record that feel like the band lose sight of what makes their sound so effective, especially in comparison to their more modern contemporaries, the passion of everyone involved rings true and the album has some seriously great songs, particularly the opening half of the record. Those missed opportunities to expand the sound are fairly minor when the record begins and ends so strongly. For a debut LP, it’s really solid and most importantly, uniquely Wrong Man.
FFO: Quicksand, Touché Amoré, Mil-Spec
SCORE 6/10
Here’s That Feeling released on September 11th on all streaming platforms via Deathwish Inc.
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