I feel thankful for Stay Safe, Little One; a humble emo album, unshowy in its preference of imagery over in-your-face technique, therefore unburdened by the hooble-gooble of sounding too much like the Midwestern bands that influenced it. Wait, What Did You Say’s debut does share a few traits with other Friend’s House Records signees – see those who contributed to the label’s Our Friend’s House compilations, the third of which Wait, What Did You Say debuted on last year – but I applaud Travis Orion’s focus on melody and even more focussed focus on the diversity of his timbre, and how that may coincide with some of the more familiar emo-isms – bratty vocal style, massive-sounding chord progressions, unashamed introspection, etc.
Transcendental fifth track Illiterate (Lol do you get it) actually begins with a classic emo riff followed by vocals propelled by a humanistic urgency whilst remaining melody, unadvanced – the riff, not the rest of the song – but precious following the destruction of prior track Coward, which contains a sudden shift in noise that emphasises the one near-consistent problem I have with the album; not only does its scruffy production style prohibit some of its timbres from reaching their potential, but Travis really leans on this one rough distortion setting that feels a bit grating even on the best songs. Pretty much every other instrumental choice is golden; when Travis’s guitar isn’t blowing up planets, it is creating natural atmospheres out of basic reverb and chorus on Fall; a roomy, spacey effort that pictures a tender moment of reflection amid all the paranoia the rest of the album harbours. His chosen tone sounds better when providing treble lines, see the high octane, serene screech of What’s a Song About, still covered in messy feedback. Also on the track, he does a lot more to justify his crumbly production, utilising a motif that dips in and out of different recording styles; a heavy filter maximises his lo-fi. Later on, there’s a melodica on Everything’s Worthless! Everything’s Worth It, so there’s plenty to enjoy.
His vocals ascend alongside a steady crescendo on opener The City, so you’ll already be feeling like the person in the ‘turn up the volume’ meme pretty much at the album’s outset, your weird, emo euphoria joined by imagistic lyrics that surrealistically depict the damage done by your immediate surroundings like something out of a low fantasy sci-fi horror, and what sounds like an accordion. It’s a very ‘complete’ song, though there are few on the record that aren’t. There is decisiveness amid Travis’s poems of uncertainty, led by woodsy guitar-picking that guides the slice-of-life verses of I Slept For Twenty-Four Hours, by an uber melodic chorus amid destructive, wall-punching guitars and drums on the Built to Spill-esque Would It Kill You to Just Be a Little Less Loud, by clever structuring on the seven-minute 721, by satisfyingly warm chords on Buddy, out to protect its heartsick melodies and lyrics (“I miss you too much, I don’t have the guts, to admit that to you”) – the moment they kick in is the album’s poignant plot twist.
If you like sticky melodies sung by a snuffle-nosed emo dude, Stay Safe, Little One has the potential to be your new favourite album. It helps that the album is so much more than that; Travis Orion’s grasp on structuring and songwriting adds to the record’s emotional layering. His down-to-earth human touch is as persistent as anything else.
Best tracks – The City – Buddy.
Rating – 8 out of 10
