Hookworms - Static Resistance

Hookworms was a perfectly decent band that offered a lot of energy through krautrock experimentations. With two albums, they were an avant-garde band that could have very well stayed exploring further their sounds and keep founding new perspectives to their style; it wasn't a band that needed a reinvention.

Yet, they did reinvent themselves, and to shock of many, embracing indie rock to be more accessible. A move that have costed the critical acclaim to so many bands, like Alt-J or Sleigh Bells. It feels specially risky since every year there are less and less good indie rock innovations; it's as if the genre has reached a point were all the good ideas were exhausted and it is time to move on.

But Hookworms managed to prove theory wrong, and their third album, Microshift escapes all the tricks that have been repeated again and again, to give and energetic and experimental take on rhythmic guitars and melodic synths, making us excited again for a sound that stopped being exciting for, at least, five years (being AM by Arctic Monkeys the last true gem of the genre).

Static Resistance is fast-paced psychedelia, opening strong with a marked percussion along with an spiraling bass that mask the humming of phrases like "I run from my feelings" and "lust haunts us forever", as if emulating the obsessive contemplation of daily absurd. Suddenly, lead singer, MJ breaks in assuring us that "You learn to celebrate, getting through", it's the voice of wisdom that has found personal objectives to deal with existential crisis, and he goes on repeating, as a mantra "There's nothing wrong with being fragile in life".

But it is soon clear that this is not an uplifting song for self-esteem books lovers, MJ has a relapse where he "can't see I've got a future". It is all about his mental health issues (that he has been openly discussing on his personal social media). It's the same idea of the difficulties of living with depression that Julien Baker explored on her last year album, but if she went for a naked heart-breaking honesty, here we deal with a more abstract interpretation of this internal war. His vocal interpretation, though, is so rich in textures and confidence, that he is able to bring us on his team and cheer for his advances, to celebrate with him those good days.

And this take on mental health is just the tip of the iceberg of the themes that Hookworms deals with in their new album: masculinity, loss, personal insecurities... it's as if they were debunking the figure of the self-assured rockstar. And probably it's a necessary shift, because Static Resistance is the track that sleek trendy bands like Franz Ferdinand or Kasabian should have released to get back into the train of musical relevance.