A Saturday morning, kids playing in the park, a ham and cheese croissant, a new Tigers Jaw record… these are some of the simple things that can brighten your spring and make modern life more bearable. The outfit from Scranton (yes, the one from The Office) returns after a five-year absence as if the gap since their last releases, I Won’t Care How You Remember Me (2021) and Spin (2017), never even happened.
What we have here is a commitment to the continuity of the emo pop sound that dominated their recent work, but with a focus on a more polished and ornate production. They have completely moved on from that much more energetic and alienated band that led the emo revival in 2008 with their self-titled album.
The LP’s roadmap is laid out right from the start. The voices of Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins play off each other, taking turns and intertwining in a sort of indie rock with emo tendencies that seeks, from the introduction with “It’s OK” and “Primary Colors”, a destination closer to classic melody rather than the urgency and grit of their early days.
“Head is Like a Sinking Stone”, which served as a teaser, is one of their best songs to date: melancholy, but with a euphoric chorus and perfectly blended vocals. On the other hand, “Anxious Blade”, “BREEZER” and “Roses + Thorns” position Brianna and her keyboard as the heart of the group. “Baptized on a Redwood Drive” takes us back to the times of Charmer (2014), while “Light Leaks Through” and “Lost on You” give us a small dose of electricity before finishing off the record.
A musical genre with four waves, countless revivals and God knows how many advents is usually more than squeezed dry, and Tigers Jaw couldn’t stay there out of mere survival. In their case, the path was to explore and exploit the strengths that made them special. That turned them into the band they are today: a group that navigates the codes of an indie rock with remarkable success—a sound that long ago moved away from the amateur spirit of its beginnings and has no qualms about cranking up the sugar level if it helps create albums as well-rounded as this Lost on You.