Gooseberry – “Fault Lines”
Photo by PMill Media
Brooklyn trio Gooseberry return to the blog with the brooding alt rock track “Fault Lines.”
“Fault Lines” is a vividly refreshing slice of nostalgia, as stark and bracing as arid desert air. This is a song that demands to be played loud. It evokes the grunge we used to get in the 1990s, music that stood on the verge of tipping into hard rock while also flirting with stoner rock. Acts like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden come to mind. It carries that same intense attitude that is unashamedly aggressive, introspective and dark.
The music feels like it is pinning you to the ground, only allowing you to break free briefly when Gooseberry seem to lose themselves in moments of mirage-induced delirium. Over a drumbeat that pounds like a division of tanks surging through sand dunes, the guitars menacingly kick up dirt as they flatten everything in their path. That’s all before we get to them running you over and finishing the job on the second pass with impressive, sprawling, duelling guitar solos that infuse flashes of psychedelic texture.
The impressive vocals hold the song together, shifting from full-throated howls to moments of lighter introspection. It is a performance that soars and haunts in equal measure, carrying the kind of intensity you might expect if Queens of the Stone Age crossed with Deep Purple. A performance that keeps rising from the dust with equal parts menace and defiance.
On the track, Gooseberry elaborates: “You know that meme where Squidward watches from his window as SpongeBob and Patrick have all kinds of fun? That’s essentially what this song is about. It's a song about picking up your life and moving from a place you've known all your life (say, New York City) and relocating 300+ miles away to a city that could not be more dissimilar. From afar, all you can do is rot away watching on social media as other bands play shows at your favourite venues back home that you could not attend. In many ways, this song is about homesickness, but also how the crush of isolation can distort tremendously. Musically, this song is one of the heaviest songs in the entire Gooseberry catalogue, and owes a great debt to Soundgarden.”
Slow-burning and monolithic, “Fault Lines” is taken from Gooseberry’s forthcoming album and the band will be touring the US and EU, pick up your tickets here.
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