Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
“Trouble,” the new single from Black Rock Candy, opens up with a lot of volume, but don’t worry about it hitting a wall anytime soon. We enter a thick black vortex containing raw fragments of melody being pieced together in real-time. The guitar finds the rhythm of the drums through the chaos, which patiently takes their time assembling a beat that we’ll spend the rest of the song chasing after. The bassline starts to warm to the sonic virtuosity of the riff when suddenly the entire band takes a step back as the lead vocal inserts itself at the head of the arrangement. This voice is soft, but it’s nowhere near delicate. The words play with the groove of the beat and the stare of the strings before giving into their demands, and without warning the song explodes into a full-color juggernaut that we can’t help but fall for.
We sway into the chorus, which destroys the tonal simplicity of the opening stanza and scattered notes that accompany it and replaces both with a soaring melody that this vocalist commands like a general over an army. The drummer tries to keep up with her, but there’s no pulling our attention away from the divine channeling that she’s doing with a microphone in her hands. The guitar gallops after the vocals and touches on the heavenly ceiling they’ve reached, and just before we break away and return to the main riff the two join and become a singular force of energy. This is, of course, perfectly timed out with the verse of the song, which reminds me more of an internal, reflective commentary than it does the lyrics.
That commentary centers on a deeper sense of pondering, but it doesn’t feel overly articulate in any way. The lyrics are sharp despite not revealing much more than previous hits in this style of music have, but I’m not convinced that they were meant to be the center of our attention in this song. That position belongs to these harmonies, which are big, flowing, and could become never-ending if performed live. The jam that ensues just before the song concludes suggests that they could expand this already sprawling composition on stage, which might make it an even more thrilling listen than it already is here.
As we give in to the churn and burn of the closing portion of “Trouble,” the mix starts to get a little rocky, seemingly to direct us towards the spiked nuances in the guitar parts as they slip into the darkness of complete silence. Being that this is the first single I’ve heard from this band this season, one has to question whether or not the whole of their next record is going to be as progressively intuitive and melodically elaborate as this song is. The boundless narrative of the track could fit in well with an entire concept piece, but on its own, it makes for intensely focused listening (especially if you’re not accustomed to this style of alternative rock). Black Rock Candy gives us a lot to consider in this track, but above all else they provide us with a markedly bold version of their brand of stylish heavy music.
Gayle Glanville
