“Don’t feel like myself, songbird on the shelf.”
Since their 2019 self-titled, five-piece Alive In Barcelona have quietly been working away at what comes next. With Flatline, there has been a clear refocus towards a more hopeful message and an aim to reach out to listeners. With this new material the Pacific Northwest teamed up with Landon Tewers, best known for his work in The Plot In You, to put together the three tracks on the Flatline EP. Tracks “Parasite” and “Asphyxiate” were co-written instrumentals that the group collaborated on with Landon. With a well known talent alongside the record, and an intrigue as to how Alive In Barcelona will traverse the new decade, Flatline will set the tone of expectation going forward.
Opening with “Parasite“, the track builds on a structure of tension in its opening moments, before leading into the guitars and drums entering in full force. There is an ebb and flow to the track, moving between its verses and chorus, that has a pleasant nature to it, with its melodic atmosphere giving it a certain appeal too. There are a few early concerns with its lyrical content with lines such as “Say goodbye to the days that I would die for you,” and “You bleed me like a parasite,” which to some could strike as eyeroll-inducing.
A guitar noodle welcomes in “Asphyxiate“, layered with a chugging riff and its structure shows off the aforementioned Tewers influence. It does perhaps seem too similar to the material that Tewers has either written in his solo material and for The Plot In You, without the full throttle of his creative control. It’s a track has solid songwriting and performance, there is just a lack of individuality that pulls it apart from what has already been heard within the genre.
Closing out the trio of tracks is “Decay“, which shows off a grand opening line of “Don’t feel like myself, songbird on the shelf“. It’s an emotive one where it feels like Alive In Barcelona touch on their best elements, leaning into an emotive and melodic performance. Despite the well-worded opening sentiments, however, the lyrical issues do crop up again with truly hollow moments, such as “I will never fly without broken wings“. There is an impassioned performance here and a rawness to the track that gives it a standout appeal to what has come previous, but “Decay” still falls into the same well-trodden trappings of the dreaded and long-past hopecore aesthetic.
With a brief foray that clocks in at just over 11 minutes, it’s difficult to know where this places Alice In Barcelona going forward. There is a decent setup with their structure and performance that clearly shows heart and passion, yet it lacks the content and substance to see this as a step forward for the group. Listening through, there is a desire to want this record to be Alive In Barcelona‘s marker for this decade, but in the end Flatline is simply let down by some poor lyrical content and a sound that is lacking originality or freshness. With Flatline being a short EP, there is still hope that what comes next will see the group flourish, though, and one can only hope they embrace and lean into their strengths moving forward.
5/10
Flatline is out this Friday, November 4th via Smartpunk Records.