by Mike Scarfo
It's rare in this day and age of music to listen to a project that you can truly say stands on its own in terms of originality. When you do hear one, however, it becomes immediately obvious, and that can show itself in a multitude of ways, whether that be bringing a certain emotion out of you, or transporting you to a new realm entirely.
That's exactly what makes 'Buddy Summer', the brand new album from alternative/alt-pop duo Nevertheless!, a breath of fresh air from a world that I haven't quite visited before. Sonically, 'Buddy Summer' is a beautiful composition of electronic, alternative, pop, and blissful indie-driven instrumentation, paired with lush vocal harmonies whose job seem to enhance the overall listening experience, rather than control a narrative. In fact, 4 of the 9 songs on the project hardly contain vocals at all: the back end of opener "Solstice", the middle interludes "Hold Still" and "Shhhhhhhhhhh", and the album's closer "i guess these things just happen sometimes".
"Solstice" sets the tone with breathy, introspective vocals that reflect a love that seems to be in the rearview mirror being looked back on in retrospect. Lead producer and vocalist, Cam, isn't the best singer from a technical aspect, but his delivery ends up being pitchy in all of the right places, making the raw experience of 'Solstice' feel strangely comforting, and transcendently human. Above all else, the way his vocal inflections mix with the rest of the instrumentation, especially guitarist JP's poignant, melodic acoustic chords, contribute to "Solstice" finding a way to be both deeply relatable and otherworldly.
That synergy that Cam and JP ultimately share is the magic that makes a project like 'Buddy Summer' work on as many levels as it does. The attention to detail is beyond palpable, with recurring insect/nature sounds at the beginning and ends of most songs that are reminiscent of what you may hear by a pond or lake on a late summer night; it's a sound that acts as a connective tissue to the entire album. Much to the credit of a song like "If I Were You", a warm summer lovers' anthem with a gorgeous, sultry vocal performance from Cam and a psychedelic guitar solo from JP towards its end that oozes with charm. But that charm is short lived, as it's followed by the heart-wrenching ballad "Bad Genetics", which is unexpectedly one of the album's highlights. The slow build from a simple guitar chord to a much grander sound by the first chorus makes for a listen that's as exhilarating as it is bleak.
"Between The Eyes" reverts back to the radiant sound that made "Solstice" and "If I Were You" so captivating, while arguably containing Cam's most dynamic vocal performance yet. Following "Between The Eyes" we get another pair of poignant ballads in "Wasn't That Enough?" and title track "Buddy Summer". The former finds Cam left with more questions than answers about this unrequited love with a more thin vocal mix, while the latter reaches the pinnacle of this emotionally moving soundscape the duo was clearly going for all along. Out of the many instrumental breakdowns 'Buddy Summer' brings forth, its no wonder the title track had to be the most elegant of them all.
Regardless of whether 'Buddy Summer' is for you, there's no debating the world Cam and JP have built with this album. There is a symbiotic harmony that is achieved in such a short amount of runtime, and is enough of a proof of concept that if you are indeed a fan of alt-pop, there should be no reason to not give this album a try. The imperfections within 'Buddy Summer' are as beautiful as its successes, and proves that the energy channeled into music will always outweigh technical prowess in spades.
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