The Backseat Lovers Have Patiently Been “Waiting to Spill” and We’re All Ears
By playing endless gigs and selling enough t-shirts, The Backseat Lovers booked some studio time to record their first EP, Elevator Days, shortly before some of the members graduated from high school. Skipping to only a few years later, the 20-something musicians offer one of the most raw, authentically sounding albums with their sophomore album Waiting to Spill released on October 28, 2022.
The “Kilby Girl” musicians embrace their emotions more tightly as they move out from their family homes and reflect on their adolescent stage with Waiting to Spill. The Backseat Lovers are long-time friends Joshua Harmon (lead vocals/guitar), Jonas Swanson (lead guitar/vocals), Juice Welch (drummer), and KJ Ward (bass). This is the band’s first album to be fully recorded under a major label, but even so, they haven’t lost the authentic touch they discovered in their first EP.
Waiting to Spill opens with the softly-spoken track, “Silhouette.” Beginning with a gentle guitar rhythm, the band isn’t afraid to gradually invite us into a more alternative mature world. The fast acceleration in the song reflects the feeling of running, not away from something in particular, but running towards a new end. The opening track wraps up its sound almost eerily as the band experiments with vocal effects and sound distortion. A new sound style we haven’t heard from The Backseat Lovers thus far. I feel as though “Silhouette” is The Backseat Lovers consciously introducing the thematic elements of the album by solely using instrumentation. It symbolises the transition from their debut album When We Were Friends, that they wrote and recorded while they were still teenagers, - to Waiting to Spill, where they are beginning a new stage in adulthood in their early-20s.
The opening song transitions smoothly into the next track, one of my favourites off the album, “Close Your Eyes.” Clinging deeply onto the arching theme of leaving your youth behind, Harmon sings in the second verse: Time keeps telling me to change / But I’m fragile and afraid. From a first listen of the track, its sound is very reminiscent amongst their earlier work on their debut LP When We Were Friends. Harmon’s raw vocals opens the track with an airy guitar line drizzled underneath, where he constructs a narrative in reflection on the wonders of growing up and turning into your own parent. Rather than focusing on the process of growing up being a wondrous and imaginative moment in one’s life, this song constructs the theme as if it were one’s greatest fear. And I know for myself and for many others, it can be.
“Close Your Eyes” begins this journey of raw authenticity, continuing into the narrative found in “Growing/Dying.” Harmon’s vocals create intrinsic depth in the track against the strong guitar solo taking it away at heightened speed. Harmon finishes the track with the words: I think it’s time to grow, - complimented with another eerie experimentation in their instrumentals.
“Viciously Lonely.” Three words. Tears, tears, tears. Another acoustic song accompanied by the soft words from Harmon. With a heavier focus on piano melodies, it’s the track where we hear the title of the album itself in the second to last verse. Harmon sings: But as my youth begins to expire / I’ll slowly put a little less wood on the fire / But maybe it’ll turn, like an old roll of film / Or a bottle of wine, that’s been Waiting to Spill. “Viciously Lonely” adds a new element to the catalogue of The Backseat Lovers. I’ve always been impressed by the creative writing done by the band, but this track effortlessly also uses its instrumentals to speak louder than words. It’s one of those songs that you listen to, and you can picture every single word the vocalist is singing. It’s a picturesque song. One that is beautifully vibrant with imagery yet almost hurts your heart when you think about it a little too much.
The Backseat Lovers’ folk-acoustic sound becomes written extensively into most of their songs on this new album, but most prominently found in “Snowbank Blues.” This track significantly reflects more of their authentic sound as an indie band that they created in their debut EP release. As Harmon sings about leaving his hometown behind to step on a stage, he talks about the fragilities that follow him as he leaves everything behind as he heads on tour with the band.
“Slowing Down” is one of The Backseat Lovers’ more emotionally infused songs on Waiting to Spill. The deep bass riff that echoes above the rest of the instruments and Harmons vocals, creates such depth in an instrumentally heavy narrative. Ward’s bass lines and Welch’s drum rhythm combined convey this almost sword-fighting sound within the verses. It’s not an argumentative or aggressive approach, but rather a conversation. A hard one to have that is, but one that is necessary.
Waiting to Spill truly is a non-skip album that consistently proves to be The Backseat Lovers’ best work to date. As the band is still so young, they are continuously making new steps by experimenting with their sound and approach to writing. So far, The Backseat Lovers have an amazingly intimate catalogue where listeners can follow them through their journey of making music as high schoolers, to late-teenagers and now, in their early-20s. The album shows immense maturity amongst the bandmates both lyrically and instrumentally. Waiting to Spill held nothing back and it’s clear they worked hard to make the album that they always intended to create.
