ep review ! :3
rarity - who gives a f---? (2024)
xxherlastwalkxx 05/16/2024
new rarity song! ngl i've never been huge into this band but they had some great songs, "exhale" is a classic and i enjoyed a good amount of the longest lonesome. this six song ep comes in anticipation of rarity's next album, which is scheduled to release june 7th 2024. "who gives a f---" is a new song, released yesterday, but the other five songs from the ep have already been released over the past few months. i believe i had already heard "keep it to yourself" and "OKAY," but the rest of the songs are new to me.
of course, it's inevitable that bands change their sound over time, but this one still caught me a little by surprise. from my relatively little exposure to the band in the past, i've always associated rarity with the 4th wave scene. the material from this ep is still the sort of "pop + hardcore" format that you'd expect from emo music, but updated for the current state of pop music and the hardcore scene. the way the songs are written remind me somewhat of silverstein's misery made me, though obviously rarity and silverstein are two very different bands so take that comparison lightly. that being said, if silverstein wrote "keep it to yourself" i wouldn't have been surprised at all.
there are some promising things on this release, but i have two major complaints. i'll admit that both are picky and annoying, but they stand out to me regardless. firstly, some of the melodies and harmonies throughout the ep are... weird. not to say that experimentation or deviation from the staple emo songwriting formula is a bad thing, but i'm just not vibing with it. what i love so much about lots of emo music is its ability to balance edginess with a sort of self-aware subtelty, and maybe i'm just reading too hard into the genre, but i'm feeling a lot of edginess on this release and not much subtlety. i don't mean to imply that you can only be self-aware by writing a generic, predictable emo song, but maybe you'll get what i mean if you've listened to the songs. (in all fairness, i could make the same argument about some of the latest silverstein material, and you all know how i feel about silverstein.) secondly, and this one is really picky and annoying, i feel like the amount of swearing is really unnecessary and gratuitous. maybe i'm just bitter about "who gives a f---?," which is a very pretty song but the amount of swearing is a little distasteful. maybe that's just a matter of personal preference, but this is my blog and my opinions. lol lmao.
overall, it's promising, but not fantastic. i'm still excited for the new rarity album, though definitely with mixed feelings.
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