Continuing their prolific and emphatic schedule for releasing powerful alt-punk anthems, Nordic four-piece Lazy Queen reach the conclusion of the project with their full EP ‘Get Home or Die Trying’.
A project that outlines a journey from rock bottom to redemption – the EP centres around the feelings and consequences of lead singer Henrik García Søberg’s battle with addiction and identity, and how it affected the people around them. It’s about regret-filled nights that blur into one, pondering how to digest the painful memories created after nightfall. The songs that make up the EP are all written from a time period that for all the band members is marked with a distinct “before” and “after”. They’re vignettes and snapshots that together form a story of chaos, self-destructive behaviour, and having to look your uglier sides in the eye. But the story told through “Get Home or Die Trying” is not just García Søberg’s, it’s experiences shared by a group of close friends, and the making of it has been their shared effort to process a turbulent time. On ‘Get Home or Die Trying’ Lazy Queen perfectly balance vulnerability with blistering anger and hurt, alternating seamlessly between thrashing guitars and softly sung laments.
The opening track ‘13.06.18’ provides an evocative snapshot of what’s to come. From its opening, marked by serene and emotive harmonies, the track quickly evolves into aggressive guitar chords, and a vocal full of angst, while detailing a relationship in freefall. It’s part love song, part break up letter, and it perfectly encapsulates the duality and contrast that continuously runs through Lazy Queen’s music. A continued testament to this is the fact that despite the brutal honesty of the lyric matter there’s an emphasis on upbeat and fun pop hooks – with singles like ‘A Place (To Bury Strangers)’ and ‘Last Call’ exposing their love of an upbeat pop-punk melody. Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Gutted’ and ‘Bid Geal’ should be sufficient proof that, despite having developed their sound since their last EP ‘A Sigh So Deep’, Lazy Queen has not lost anything in the way of being experts at creating raucous, biting guitar music with plenty of energy.
Since beginning to record and release their own music, Lazy Queen have found critical acclaim in outlets like Wonderland Magazine, NYLON, Red Bull Music, Earmilk, Under The Radar, Impose Magazine and Medium for their singles ‘Throwaway’, ‘Sober’, ‘Last Call’ and ‘Gutted’. Their releases have also been featured in Apple Music’s ‘New Music Daily’ playlist alongside global support from Tidal and Spotify including New Music Friday.
With ‘Get Home or Die Trying’, Lazy Queen leaves it all at the table, and leaves nothing unsaid. Of the EP García Søberg says: “‘Get Home or Die Trying’ is about a group of people trying to figure out what happens after it was all supposed to end”
“The recording of Bad Trip came about as a sort of tag-on to the rest of “Get Home or Die Trying”. It was the end of a long and very warm recording session at Morten’s studio (producer Morten Øby), and we all had some pent up energy that needed to get out, and the result became this “live” version of the track in which we all just blew out what we had left in the room together in one take. Overall, it’s about being paranoid, turning friends into enemies in your head and feeling like the world is about to end, but nobody really seems to care. You know, fun stuff.”
Xs Noize is pleased to exclusively premiere a live version of ‘Bad Trip’ – Listen BELOW:
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