Fightmilk – If You Had A Sister… (Reckless Yes)
Fightmilk return with a new single from their delayed second album with If You Had A Sister…, evolving their signature pop-punk song in a maturing direction.
Artist: Fightmilk
Track: If You Had A Sister…
Label: Reckless Yes
Released: 4 September 2020
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
If You Had A Sister…, the latest single from Fightmilk, arrives in your ears, as so many of their songs do, with a smile on its face. But here, teamed with a refined evolution of their sound, it’s a bittersweet lip-twitch rather than a self-assured snark-induced smirk.
Reflective as it reveals an intimate but relatable glimpse of an inner world coloured with yearning the track is the second single to come from a delayed second album, following on from I’m Starting To Think You Don’t Even Want To Go To Space and showing a further maturing of their signature pop-punk. Here there are hints of Wolf Alice, Diet Cig at their most vulnerable and melodically restrained, and Disintegration-era The Cure.
The band said of the track, “We put ‘If You Had a Sister…’ together during our first practice with Healey, which seemed like an incredibly good sign. I don’t think any of us expected it to come out sounding all that different from a regular Fightmilk song, but the more we worked on it, the less it seemed to need.
“It’s a bit slower and quieter than the fast guitar pop of the last album, and it’s about all kinds of dark things – but if there was ever a time for songs you can do ominous slow dancing to, it’s 2020.”
Chilled in tone, there is feminist undertones to much of the lyrics, while melodically the track exudes a growing confidence through a more restrained approach before going full tilt toward anxious-heartbeat flurries of drums, and keening guitar lines breaking the calm surface before gathering itself back in. It’s the simmering emotion we’re all just trying to contain, the hunger and the ache. On the right side of gloomy, subdued without being downbeat, the track shows a band blooming beautifully from their power-pop core.
Fightmilk released their debut album Not With That Attitude in 2018 via independent label Reckless Yes. The follow up long player has been delayed by coronavirus but is now slated for an early 2021 release.
Find Fightmilk: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
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* Disclaimer: Sarah Lay is co-founder of Reckless Yes so is partially responsible for the release of this track. However, she would only release or write about music she really loved so this is more about enthusiasm for great music, and great artists than it is touting her own wares.
Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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