Front Pocket Flora’s third single opens with a memorable line that sounds like it came straight out of an early Modest Mouse record–think Lonesome Crowded Northwest or even the lesser-known side-project Sharpen Your Teeth–one recorded well before Isaac Brock’s mind-numbing insistence that every one of us will, eventually, all float on. In “If You Had Me,” which is set to come out on February 6th, Kaden Theisen sings, “I ain’t got no change/ Yeah, I got no sense,” against a well-textured riff that forms the throughline in a track that effectively combines slowcore and folk elements. The steady cadence of the song, which gradually layers different sonic textures over the central guitar line, sounds nothing like Modest Mouse, but it definitely brings Ugly Casanova to mind, alongside the work of more recent artists like Fox Academy and Runner.
Over the course of three minutes, the song evokes what Thiesen calls the “monotony of life […] inspired by residing in the Appalachian foothills.” The lyrics are filled with what feels like different snapshots and fragments of this life. The narrator sings, “Once I was young, I lived in the trees/ With bugs and things,” offering the listener fleeting glimpses of nostalgia and a past spent, I can only assume, in the woods. Ultimately, however, the track culminates in the lyric: “Here I am right by your side,” highlighting a present that bears the familiar marks of everyday life–its monotony and, yes, its confusion (see lack of sense) but also the solace of companionship and a regional pull that feels like home. This is a quiet but well-crafted song, one that–in this writer’s humble opinion–is best suited for max volume on the headphones while taking a long midwinter walk.
Written by SilenceKid
