Away by Jo Passed

For fans of Interpol, Snail Mail, Total Wife, glam rock, and finally setting those menial daily concerns aside to focus on creating something beautiful, Away by Jo Passed molds the unlikely inspirations of stress and frustration into a smooth, fun indie rock record. Catchy guitar work catches our immediate attention, jangling and chugging through fully-fledged pop melodies at frantic garage rock paces and centering the work on an accessible aesthetic. From here, a heavily treated, intentionally subdued vocal mimics our internal monologue as we trudge through yet another day of repetitive tasks and their resulting feelings of underproductivity. However, at this point the band departs with this general theme of transparent accessibility, inviting in the more challenging tones of bebop jazz through a wind section as the unsettling presence of deeply distorted guitar and synth tracks papers the background. Normal as these feelings of stagnancy may seem, they wreak havoc on our long-term mental health, a reality acknowledged by the aesthetic bite hidden within this record, an implication encouraging us to add color to our days through genuine, passionate creativity.