Moody and grimaced with hints of early Radioheaded Milk Neutrality, Petty Human Emotions absolutely picked the right name for this band. The jingle jangle percussion is annoying one second and completely necessary the next, with looped keys, Mangummy mashups, and peroxide-dipped punkish slow churns of acoustic guitar. The song “Something New” drives home the poetically daunting power this group has… and their mix of combining all their favorite artists into one band is a method that has paid off for everyone in modern rock ‘n’ roll besides Corey Feldman.
Check out their lead single “Untitled” to get a sense of what I’m talking about.
From Over The Aeroplane starters and orders of Foo Fighting entrees the next, Petty Human Emotions have a lot shining potential here in their musical kitchen. Yeah, the lead vocals could use more grit, and there is No Doubt a lot of these songs mimic the gimmicks of early groups as well as their career launching points. But these are the songs of Petty Human Emotions, a band that takes Blink 182 sentiment and clashes that pop twirl with Pavement’s indie angst on their standout track, “Madison Ave.”
Project Founder, James Nardiello, had this to say regarding the album:
This is a collection of songs that share a tone and a feeling more than anything else. The feeling at the forefront of this project is simple melancholy, longing and loneliness. I felt inspired to include instruments that aren’t typical of the rock genre or to use them in ways that may be unconventional to experiment and execute this.
The songs are all tied together musically and thematically in a more abstract way than I had previously written records.”
He sings about being alone for what seems like forever on “MAE,” another standout track from this group. And while it may seem like a strange request, these guys should stick to songs like the first, third, and fourth on their self-titled album, not because they are sleazy borderline I’ve heard this before songs, but because they make these refurbished chord progressions their own. Less trying to be Nirvana or Radiohead and more successfully ripping off and riffing on their sound to generate their own stuff.
Example: “Sorry” is a worse version of “Karma Police” with, for some reason, an attempt at the dinkey charm of Third Eye Blind, not worth the warrant of all-over-the-flat brashness these guys have the ability to channel. Stick to one band to sound like and I guarantee you’ll find your voice. After all, Vampire Weekend has never paid Paul Simon any copyright fees… at least not to my knowledge.
So keep up the good work and trust your instincts. Your next project will be even better if you do.
“Petty Human Emotions” was produced and engineered by Max Dickenson. Look out for it on streaming services May 19th.
