There are some critics who will tell you that self-awareness is a natural born gift that has to be channeled in the right direction once an artist gets to the level Rad Horror are at with the release of their new single “Everybody But Myself” and its music video.
They’ll indicate that Rad Horror had to assemble out of pure luck, an act of fate if you will, and that their abilities would only be properly put to use if placed in the right circumstances to foster creative success; to me, though, this is just too simple an explanation for why their sound is the attractive bit it is in 2020. In reality, self-awareness – especially in the alternative pop/rock genre – takes a long time to cultivate and bring to fruition, and from the lyrics in “Everybody But Myself” to the faint ribbonry tying everything together between the vocals and instruments, it’s obvious that this isn’t a song its creators simply pulled out of thin air. This is a very hard working group of musicians, and while their compositional wit lends itself over to conceptualisms born in stadium rock and surreal pop the same, that unique combination gives them an edge none of their contemporaries seem to have at the moment.
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This mix is super tight from top to bottom, and I think it could have been made this way specifically with the intention of Rad Horror issuing a sort of response to the rise in atmospheric indulgences within the pop songwriting community. There’s nothing muscularity and an anti-fatty stylization of every harmony in this track, allowing for nothing to interfere with the synchronicity of the vocal and bassline (which serve, in some ways, as the backbone of the track’s central groove). I believe there would be just as much appeal to a club crowd as there would be a general sense of radio accessibility for “Everybody But Myself” if offered up to a large audience, and though it could be a while before the dance crowd scores another spot to tear up the floor, the grooves here could suffice in the meantime.
I’m just getting into the music of Rad Horror this fall thanks to getting my hands on a pre-release copy of “Everybody But Myself,” but I’m already getting the vibe that they’re going to get picked up by the mainstream element before the underground knows what to do with their eminence. There are still some maturation issues with the way some of the material is arranged here, but without splitting too many hairs, the curb appeal of the harmonies – and every beat behind them – is smart and left open to a pool of listeners that isn’t made up of white teen neo-hipsters exclusively.
That’s not easy to pull off, let alone for a band working with the limited exposure this one has been since their inception, but for this group, I guess we could be learning to expect the unexpected when it comes to what they’ll be up to next.
Jodi Marxbury