You’ve got to remove your snobby, word soup writer’s hat and call a song fucking sick when it’s fucking sick. Teenage Jesus, by Blunder, is fucking sick. Covered in enunciated fuzz, alternate to everyday rock distortion, the song feels realistically nostalgic – it may sound like an obvious descriptor, but nothing sounds this nostalgic – yet somehow deeply in the moment.
We find ourselves somewhere between classic post-punk and 2000s revivalism with a grungy touch; the latter label could’ve foreseen some tedium – I’ve heard so many bands go grunge and go numb as a result – but Fontaines D.C. style leads, sentimental basslines, a familiar face of a I-IV chord progression, and a scared, throaty chorus, make sure that is never the case.
Everything grooves into one. The nostalgic feel shakes hands with apologetic lyrics, in which one’s own young adulthood is shamed, to create feelings of big city memories, according to the song’s music video made primarily in Moor Street and the back alleys of Digbeth. Youth is presented as both a sickness and wonderful drug, and though I’m risking a lot by saying this, I hope future Blunder songs are able to display similar feelings – the band is very good at doing so.
The band itself is a four-piece from Birmingham. Blunder has so far released two songs, the aforementioned Teenage Jesus and TV Static Girl. As far as I’m aware, an EP – entitled Blunder Will Rule the World – is currently in the works, and the band plays all over Birmingham, so keep an eye out. Will Blunder rule the world? Here’s hoping.
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