I first heard The Front Bottoms in 2021. They were adjacent to the facade of post-COVID indie music somehow, likely algorithmically, despite dating back to 2011.
I fucking hated them.
How could people listen to this? Shitty four chord country riffs with the most annihilating voice whining over it. I tried to enjoy it, but I seriously couldn’t. I was 14, loved Dream SMP and so Lovejoy were my jam.
It’s 2025, Lovejoy have derailed into darkness, I’m in a band that has covered 2 TFB songs and they’re my favourite band of all time.
1. Flashlight
She said most the people we graduated with are now homeless which leaves them in mad shady situations with mad shady people, if not everyday, then on an every other day basis.
This was not my first song to start bumping, but first on the list as it is first on the debut. As an initial Talon of the Hawk fan, it took a lot of playing the self-titled to start really getting it. The guitar line is so chilling, melancholy and topped with a lyric stream that brands itself as one big SIGH.
2. Maps
There is a map in my room on the wall of my room and I got big, big plans
My favourite feature of this song is the string lines and the bouncy drums, on top as well as the foreboding chorus.
3. Looking like you just woke up
To be perfectly honest, I don’t LOVE this one. It makes me feel strange and I’m not sure why. However, I don’t skip any of these songs, and I do really like the mad flanged drums before the chorus kicks in. (Those with trained ears will hear a similar element before the chorus of Previous Business)
4. Mountain
I bought fireworks, a big bag in Pennsylvania. I’m gonna light em up when I get home to Jersey.
This one feels like a big road trip. Even though the song begins slow and deflating, the chorus never fails to give me chills.
5. Rhode Island
I wonder how that bike trip’s going. I wonder if the government knows he’s hiding
Another kind of filler song for me, that somehow I still cherish. I like how the chorus melody is a homage to The Beers.
6. The Beers
mee-moo-mee-moo-mee-moo-mee-moo
THERE’S BEER. IN COFFEE MUGS
Oh man, what the fuck else can I say about this song. It’s the best on the album. How can a honky tonky plod of a riff be this self-deprecating? Even before Brian starts singing I freeze in my tracks.
7. Father
I have this dream where I am hitting my dad with a baseball bat and he is screaming and crying for help.
And maybe halfway through it has more to do with me killing him then it ever did protecting myself.
This one has me concerned: the first few lines are very clear and obvious, but then it glides into such a cryptic flow:
Cause you were highschool, but I was just more like real life
Yeah you were ok, ok as a girlfriend, girlfriend
But I was just more like his wife.
What the hell is he saying here? That his mum is more of a girlfriend to his dad and himself is more of a wife? Anyway, a song that makes me ask questions is still a song to be liked.
8. Swimming pool
There’s comfort at the bottom of a swimming pool
Shit… I love this song. It has such a journey of verses filled with hope.
9. The Boredom is the Reason I Started Swimming. It’s Also the Reason I Started Sinking
Again, a strange but rewarding song. Any TFB song with a xylophone and shouting choir is one to be adored, but this one is most enjoyed with the synth line that follows
You’re part of a program.
10. Bathtub
After 9 tracks of The Front Bottoms, I think all I can appreciate about this one is the cleverly placed words. Not even clever in an artsy way, just generally good lyrics, balanced conversationally and melodically.
I am washing my hair with soap. I am sitting down in the shower.
It is this dirty type of clean that leaves me trapped in here for hours.
11. Legit tattoo gun
My excuse for liking this song is not actually in Brian’s singing or lyricism, but the sheer power of the epic synthesisers. They match the song so well and are with you every step of the way. Every album deserves a synth epic, and this is the synth epic of the album. My favourite lyric however:
…and we were getting ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…. high….
12. Hooped earrings
Like most TFB songs (backed up by my 3 year disliking of them), they take some getting used to. This one is clearly uncomfortable (excuse the reference) due to skits and segments of sobbing, but overall the energy perfectly wraps up the album. I soon realised that it’s also about following a friend coming out to their mum, cutting their hair and all of the anguish in between.
Once you really dive into The Front Bottoms and develop some level of emotional maturity, it’s hard to hate them. They speak for all the angst across the land.
I will cover Talon of the Hawk in my next post, goodbye for now!
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