REVIEW: The Cons of Being a Wallflower by eevie echoes & The Locations released via Ska Punk International
Hello and happy new year! Only a month late!
This is the second review of the year. The first was posted yesterday via Left of the Dial.
Every year I take a little break from posting reviews for the first month or so of the year. There aren’t a lot of moments in those first few weeks. This time there was, however, most of my timeline was posting about The Cons of Being a Wallflower, the debut record from Brooklyn-based, queer DIY indie star, eevie echoes, in the second week of ‘24. The excitement around this record was the first I had heard of this particular artist, so I was excited to see what was making such a commotion.
Wallflower opens with “24,” a ska track about the trappings of capitalism, how it suffocates artistry and pressures youth into adapting a toxic mindset about the workforce and leadership. All of this is presented very eloquently, however it does so over a pretty par-the-course ska instrumental. In a vacuum I think the song is fine, especially so early in the year where we don’t have much new material to go off of, but as an album opener this really misses the mark. It does nothing to make me feel drawn into the rest of the record.
Still, I dug in deeper and was rewarded with “Braindead” as track two. This one is a hyper ska cut which comes off as fairly formulaic but gets away with it by being really fun to go back to. The catchy vocal melody and chiptune-backed sonics actually make this one of the first hyper fixation tracks of the year. The biggest disappointment here is that the feature, crystal cartridge, doesn’t seem to have any material to dive into. Although this does set the stage for one of my favorite parts of the record, it’s little genre trips and dips. “Liar” is a look into much more punk spaces, being heavier and edgier. This becomes a double-edged sword, while a lot of the songs, especially on side a, are enjoyable they don’t weave together to make a record I would consider being an early main stay for the year.
Side b is sort of a slog to get through. There’s a life and an energy here that completely vanishes from track six on. Even “Odd Man Out,” a fairly strong closer and one of my highlights overall, just boils down its themes. Of course, a trans woman is going to relate to the song about not fitting in while transitioning, but it's almost all thematic substance, with nothing exciting musically. Of course, even this too is double-edged, part of eevie’s talent as an artist is her ability to turn themes you’ve heard over and over again into something compelling and fresh. “24” is fantastic lyrically, “Helicopter Parent” is a truly suffocating view into living with a narcissistic parent. I wish I found more to like otherwise.
There's a lot of moments here, but as a body of work I, in no way, feel like it's a record worth multiple revisits. I get the feel for what bands in the genre they hold dear, and I even admire the classic production, it sounds off the floor. At the end of the day, however, there isn’t much setting this band apart from the rest of the scene right now.
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