Loser Demon EP2 comes out of the gate strong with “Holding Ground” which is walls of guitar, crash rides, and fuzzy goodness. Existential narratives with a high pedigree of lyricism about family lineage and dealing with growing older. There’s something compelling about the way the vocalist urges “holding ground” out in their performance.
“Two Times” busts in with a quarter note snare supporting a fuzzy guitar and vocal. Energetic controlled chaos supports a dystopian set of lyrics that feature imagery of birds flying into planes turbines and someone putting down anchor on a life that isn’t really what they should’ve been after. At least that’s how I took this verse;
“two times i tried to tell you
there’s a better afterlife
but you dropped your anchor
now you’re dealing with a murdered plebiscite”
“Rewinder” eases the pace from the first two tracks into something more introspective. There’s something much more pop about “Rewinder” between the accessible harmony, the lyrics and the more mid-tempo pacing “Rewinder” hits me more like a combination of Wilco and Pavement but with more fuzz on the guitars but also a touch of R.E.M. This is my personal favorite on the record.
“Hundred Feet” eases the pacing even more for EP2. Lyrically this continues an inward trajectory into our songwriter and their romantic life. This feels a bit more Modest Mouse but this EP is very unapologetically guitar rock that for me reminds me of VFW days or dive bars, it’s raw, it’s born in a garage, it’s four friends making great rock music. Lines about parachutes failing and waiting rooms crashing into choruses about love and progress create this vertigo effect, you’re not sure whether to laugh or to feel gutted, Loser Demon finds poetry in the contradictions.
“Reliance” brings the pacing back from the first two tracks but without the rebelliousness and continues the self-actualization and self-determination against unseen forces trying to bring our songwriter down. Dan’s drumming and Zach’s guitar lines. It’s a song about nostalgia and denial, played at full volume, a plea to rewind reality itself.
EP2 closes with “Living in the Margins” a song that re-centers everything. It’s understated and the slowest on the EP, but maybe more cutting because of it. “I won’t speak if I don’t think that you’ll hear me,” cuts deep and the whole track feels like a meditation on being overlooked, unheard, or deliberately ignored. It’s tender and angry and disenfranchised and soothing. A beautiful way to close a great second EP.
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