This collaboration feels like the perfect meeting point between two artists who clearly understand slowcore at its essence. be kind to bees laid down that classic, typical slowcore riff – slow, heavy, beautifully lethargic – then built it out with a melodic guitar and gentle drums. but nobody came came in with an eerie vocal melody about a broken relationship, and it ties the whole track together in a way that feels painfully sincere.
It opens with the sound of a cassette tape starting up, instantly setting the scene for a lo-fi track that feels worn-in and personal. The guitar tone is slow, fuzzy, almost degraded – like you’re listening to something that’s been dubbed over a few cassette generations. It gives the whole thing the vibe of driving through a ghost town on a rainy day, or finding an old mixtape a lover made for you.
The spoken word section really stood out to me:
“It’s a Saturday afternoon. I came to the place that reminds me most of you. Everything that’s been happening hurts me. I feel like I’m going to do it any minute now. Not that I’m thinking about something like that, but I don’t know. I just want to be fine.”
It lands with this raw honesty that fits the atmosphere perfectly.
The vocals throughout are chilling – mixed exactly where they should be, sitting inside the fog of guitars and those intentionally quiet drums. Honestly, the whole track sounds like something the goth kids from South Park would have written, in the best possible way: moody and carried by a simple but emotionally heavy progression.
The beauty in this song really is the repetition. Both lyrically and instrumentally, it loops and circles around its feelings in that classic slowcore way – not trying to escape the sadness, just soaking in it.
The ending is what really seals it, fading out with Morse code that translates to:
“You destroy me, but at the same time you’re everything I’ve ever wanted.”
It’s a striking contrast – direct and raw compared to the poetic indirectness that comes before it – and it works incredibly well.
7/10
be kind to bees
but nobody came
Written by John Drifter (drifting.)
