On “Garamond,” the first single from their upcoming EP Everything Nice, Ontario trio Arm’s Length sought to get to the bottom of what made their hard-hitting emo sound so appealing to begin with. As they told Under The Radar last week, that meant revisiting their debut What’s Mine Is Yours with a critical ear: “We feel like we took everything that made our first EP good and kept that in mind on every track, while simultaneously cutting out any filler.”
As a tighter-produced, no-holds-barred rager, “Garamond” is one hell of a good start. It’s their catchiest song yet by a considerable margin, and it’s no less dynamic, hitting the louder-shouting highs of a track like “Watercolour” and ending on an acoustic ellipsis like the quieter “Blank Slate.” It’s everything they do well as a band compressed into a compact, immediate, three-minute burst, with a propulsive triple meter and goosebump-inducing harmonies.
It also drops the EP title as it outlines the lyrical themes of Everything Nice, which the band says centers on the fallout from years of grappling with mental illness. “It’s about family dynamics that may have had a part in shaping the way you behave in relationships. It’s about forgetting everything as a means of coping. It’s about coming to terms with looking back in anger.”
You can stream and download “Garamond” now and check out the accompanying music video:
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