My friend Ben posted MESS' stuff on social media and I was immediately hooked. I got their contact from him and reached out about helping to release this, which I think is the first and only time I've done a tape for a band that I don't really know IRL. I've since done a cassette of their follow-up which also rules. Baltimore quartet that recalls the time in the mid-90s when PROMISE RING-esque emo blended seamlessly with VERSUS/SPENT-style US indie.
You know, this album, and particularly "Perfect World" give this sort of "your life is what you make it" kind of theme to it---all while being served with a very hip and catchy melody...personally I'm transitioning from #3 to #2 in terms of this song, and it only took 23 years! Aaron Jay Turkheimer
An album that snuck up on me and slapped me with goosebumps. It’s a perfect listen back to front.
Each of the band members contributions are inextricably linked to the final result. There’s no need to separate, weigh and appraise each individually.
These aren’t the sounds of critics or cynics.
These are the sounds of love letters, of incantations, of indictments of nightmare makers and of screaming into the void. How does one know a classic? By observing the levitating arm hairs. Classic. 🖤 blichvar