Single Review: Sad Face

If there is a phrase I can’t stand right now it’s “let’s get ready for the new normal.”

Fuck that.

There is no normal. There is you and there is everyone else.

We are always pressured to fit into an acceptable or expected way to be. For the past few years especially we have been asked to conform in a way that many of us have never experienced before.

Normality breeds stagnation and kills creativity.

So the latest single Sad Face from Mojo Alice really connected with me. An angst-ridden heavy, bluesy, grunge tinted rage against normality. It connected on another level too.

Something more difficult to put my finger on, something not easy to explain. It could be Jem’s vocals that cut and blend and pummel in equal measure. It could be the passion that shines through the dirty groove. It could be the musicianship. It could be the lyrics. It could be the production.

No, it’s not those things.

What really stands out is that when all those familiar elements that many great bands have are put together on this track the result is different.

Sad Face could so easily have just been another run-of-the-mill bluesy rock song. The type which is blasted out of many a bar all over NZ on a normal Saturday night but it has a spark, an edge. It wears its familiar influences on its sleeve but manages to draw you in rather than turn you off.

In a genre where it is easy to replicate and repeat, Sad Face stands out. It demands your attention.

So if the “new normal” ever arrives. Ignore it, move on and catch Mojo Alice who I guess won’t be doing the same as anyone else.