LaterGator, a band based in Indianapolis, IN, released their debut EP Hard to Say on November 22, 2024, almost an entire year after their first release – and I’m so glad that they did, as Hard to Say was one of my favorite releases in 2024. I was introduced to the band and the EP by a friend of mine, and he’s one of those friends that always shows me good music, so I immediately put the EP on when he suggested it to me, and I immediately fell in love with it. With five tracks and fifteen minutes of run time, I find myself wishing there was more, but then maybe the final track wouldn’t hit as hard as it does. LaterGator uses a brilliant combination of shoegaze and more traditional emo sounds and are incredibly talented musicians and lyricists, and thus this EP is surely bound to become a DIY emo classic.
My favorite track is easily “That’s So Craven!”, a track with lyrics about grief and the complicated feelings and thoughts that surround us when someone we know dies. My favorite line from this track goes “so was it hard to say goodbye, and have to do so with a brave face, while the people you look up to cry and wish they could take your place, did that make you feel loved, or did it just make you feel guilty, that’s enough, I’m not ready to know”. Every single time I hear that line it hits me just as hard as it did the first time I heard it, feeling like someone is gripping my heart and squeezing as tight as they can. After we hear that line for the first time, it launches into a gorgeous melody driven by a rhythm guitar, almost as if LaterGator is trying to prepare us for even harder-hitting lines further in the track. The entire track is devastating and devastatingly beautiful, an homage to the way our minds wrap around themselves as we deal with grief and everything that comes with losing someone. Both grief and art are extremely human and it only makes sense that we make art about grief, but LaterGator has done it better than others.
Another track I love is “Spaceman Spliff”, which opens with an energetic bass riff that then launches us into the main guitar riff, setting the tone for the track. The vocal melody in this track is captivating, and just as you’ve been lulled into thinking you know what this track has in store, some of the best screams I heard in 2024 burst into the track, leading us into the chorus. The vocalist yells, “be what you wanna be, I wanna be myself”, which then leads into an energetic and fun riff that’s stuck in my head more often than not. Like “That’s So Craven!”, this track makes me wish there were more songs in this release, but I also appreciate and understand how cohesive the EP is and know that LaterGator can really only go up from here.
LaterGator burst into the DIY scene with fireworks and fanfare announcing their arrival, and I am so glad that they’re here. I cannot express how much I love Hard to Say, and will just say to trust me when I say that I listen to “That’s So Craven!” and “Spaceman Spliff” at least twenty times a day each. In anticipation of this release, LaterGator did a giveaway of a crotched alligator plushie wearing a little shirt that says “LaterGator!” – and of course I entered the giveaway, though I never expect to win those. However, a little while later, I was able to add the alligator to my plush collection, and now the alligator goes with me almost everywhere I go. I love the way that LaterGator involves the DIY community and exercises their creativity not just when making music, but when drumming up excitement for their releases and how that brings the community together. Go listen to Hard to Say – trust me, you’ll be glad you did.
[Pictured Below: the alligator plush that I won from the LaterGator giveaway.]
Written by Valor
