Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
When a relationship reaches an impasse, hearts and humility are on the line, and the desire to avoid a head-on crash both parties see coming a mile away can be enough to table whatever problems might exist today. Wolf Rd explore this story with a much greater poetic license than I could ever obtain in the new single and music video “As Good As It Gets,” and although I just got into this pop-punk band over the last month, it didn’t take me long to see why everyone in their scene has been raving over their skills lately.
URL: https://www.wolfrdband.com/
The instrumentation in “As Good As It Gets” is steeped in the tradition of acoustic punk simplicity as first brought to fruition back in the early ‘90s (and arguably perfected in Chicago about a decade and a half later via the second-wave emo movement). That means no-frills, no-filler punk rock played organically with no overdrive to come between artist and audience, and while this demands a lot out of the former and little out of the latter, Wolf Rd doesn’t shrink from the challenge. Their confidence spills into every portion of this song and right through our speakers, which says a lot about where they stand as a truly blue-collar act.
“As Good As It Gets” is one of my favorite new acoustic punk songs of the year, and though I wasn’t listening to Wolf Rd before I got ahold of this track, it’s made me curious to hear what else they can muster up in the recording studio and beyond. The video for this song doesn’t advertise the stereotypical pop-punk look (nor that halfhearted one MGK has been sporting beside his new girlfriend this year), but instead something fresh and undisputedly more accessible than the commercial acts in the genre could produce themselves. It’s something I could get into even more than I already am, and I think you’ll see why once you examine “As Good As It Gets” on your own.
Edward Cyr
