Long Island’s Koyo offer an honest snapshot into some of their most raw lived experiences on debut album Would You Miss It?
Some albums feel made for gloomy months. Something about Would You Miss It? feels both comforting yet empowering, and it carries a melancholy undertone that just feels right for this time of year.
Koyo address hypocrisy, flaky friends and bittersweet nostalgia on this long-awaited debut. It crams in plenty of big and stomping instrumental offerings, brushed with gravelly vocals from Joseph Chiaramonte. Opener 51st State is busy from the beginning, with lyrics of, ‘How’d it get so bad?’ and a change of pace that melts the track away, it’s a multi-faceted intro that sets the mood of sourness and the release of an inner tension.
Standout You’re On The List (Minus One) follows suit, with contrasting climbing and falling vocal melodies and a tormenting earworm riff, it’s one that rings around your head after listening like the remnants of a chiming bell. Drummer Salvatore Argento goes utterly ham on his snare during Flatline Afternoon, a more murky track which isn’t apologetic about its feelings of resentment and regret. The energy is exciting, and to see more of this would have been a treat.
One-sided relationships where you’re expected to care about someone but never get the same support in return are explored on the album’s closer Crushed. It sums up an honest take on a topic that so many of us experience, yet don’t always talk about or hear in music.
Would You Miss It? is a substantial debut that starts the band off on the right foot, but leaves you sometimes champing at the bit for something more expansive. It offers modern lyrical zest with an underbelly of classic pop-punk, and although some tracks feel a little too samey, there’s no doubt that the band have bared their souls on this album, and that takes guts.
Verdict: 3/5
For fans of: The Story So Far, Movements, Knuckle Puck
Would You Miss It? is released on September 29 via Pure Noise
