Sonically, Boring Story pulls more from the emo-tinged alt rock of Taking Back Sunday or Microwave, with maybe a hint of the post-punk flavor of The Strokes, making for an exhilarating listen.
"Sad Sack" is the third and final single from Boring Story debut album, Rust. It's an indie rock track that flirts with pop-punk and '90s alternative for something catchy with a bite.
Boring Story originally titled their debut LP Rust back in 2015. It was supposed to be a reference to the characters who populate the record, people stuck in their own lives in traps of their own making, frustrated by the world and doing nothing to change it. Seven years on, as it finally sees the light of day, the colors still continue to warp and flake in different shades.
The band—comprising singer/guitarist Zach Griffin, bassist Nick Harley, and drummer Ben Taylor—recorded all the instrumentals beginning in winter of 2016, as the country’s culture began shifting beneath their own evolving lives. Taylor moved to Connecticut, and the three considered scrapping Rust and starting anew, or even calling it quits entirely. Ultimately wanting something to show for the time, Griffin finished tracking vocals in summer 2022. After only intermittent progress the prior 5 years, the album was finally done, almost a decade in the making.
Griffin and Harley both handle lyrics, with the duo tapping into darker sides of themselves for the process this time. Harley notes that his approach involved exorcizing “some of these ugly thoughts I was having, thoughts that maybe did not reflect my feelings specifically, but thoughts that I believed that I was capable of having if I gave into my worst, most misguided influences.
”Those impulses rear their head throughout the album, from the frenetic “Say My Name” to the grimy punkish barnburner “Sad Sack.” It all culminates with closer “Wreck,” a slowdance that ends the record on its most cutting line: “admit it, you’re alright with being a wreck.” While pulling lyrically from “Jumper,” it’s a dirtier, scruffier sound than Third Eye Blind’s.
Sonically, Boring Story pulls more from the emo-tinged alt rock of Taking Back Sunday or Microwave, with maybe a hint of the post-punk flavor of The Strokes, making for an exhilarating listen. With their second album already halfway written, Rust’s release represents a chapter closing that also gives the story a starting place. It’s funny how close the band came to shelving it completely, because they ended up with a knockout.
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