WL//WH Track Of The Day: U.S. GRAVE “I Think I’m Alone”

Track Of The Day  U.S. GRAVE  

Starting from the dark roots of rock’n’roll outsiders such as Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, to the spooky hoodoo punk vibes of The Flesh Eaters, The Gun Club and Tex & the Horseheads, the swampy groove from Down Under of The Birthday Party and the Scientists, to the macabre tones of The Misfits, TSOL and Social Distortion, not to mention the usual suspects such as The Ramones, The Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division, are too many the names that nurture and echo the shadowy yet shimmering timeless Dark Pop /Post-punk sound of U.S. Grave.

After last Summer’s debut EP, “Voice Of An Idiot Ghost”, the Phoenix, AZ-based 4-piece, comprised of guitarist Alex Bank Rollins and vocalist/ bassist Andrew Leemont, both also part of the black n’ rollers Take Over And Destroy, alongside drummer /producer Bob Hoag and guitarist Pete Porter, are back with the second single of the year “I Think I’m Alone”.

Doomy lyrics extract paranoia, alienation, and gloom from a lifeless existence of obsessive fleeing.

Recalling the goth hued melodic dizziness, cloaked in the early 80s dim light, from the Lords Of The New Church’s “Lvin’ on livin'”, “I Think I’m Alone” unleashes a hypnotic lashing drumming alongside a menacingly throbbing bassline, slowly swept by lonesome swathes of icy synths and pierced by obsessive, evocative and twinkling electric guitars, whilst scratching the looming darkness with crystalline strains of resonant twangs around urgent, restless, shivering vocals channelling angst and fear through depth defying echoes of dread, to descend sadly into relentless isolation of pain.

As vibrant and biting as it is melodically addictive, “I Think I’m Alone” carries us on a poignant merry-go-round of heart-pounding, gloomy and gripping emotions.

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Photograph by Joseph Maddon