Today, I’m diving into an album from an up-and-coming band that’s either from New Brunswick, Canada, or New Brunswick, New Jersey. Honestly, I have no idea—Spotify says Jersey, some other sites say Canada, and I’m just here like, “Does it really matter as long as the music slaps?” I gotta say, this band really hits the spot for me. Exactly the kind of stuff I look for. The band is Flycatcher.
Skip the bs and go straight to the song ratings.
Their song “Brother” has been popping up on some Spotify playlists, and it’s a fun listen. As someone with an older brother I looked up to as a kid (until I found out he was human and we don’t agree on everything—shocking, I know), the song really struck a chord. The band’s sound reminds me of a 90s alt-rock group that got thrown in a blender with an early 00s pop-punk band. The result? Something familiar, yet hard to pin down—like the musical equivalent of déjà vu.
And speaking of trying to figure them out, good luck finding their influences. These guys are so indie they don’t even have a Wikipedia page. I was grasping at straws until I stumbled across an article in Unclear Magazine (which, hilariously, “cleared” things up—pun absolutely intended). They suggested a British pop influence, specifically The Kooks. Sure, why not? That sounds vaguely right, and it gives me something to tell you other than, “I dunno, they just sound cool.”
Their EP Songs for Strangers is a solid offering that’s way better than a band with so few monthly listeners has any right to be. I hit play expecting decent indie vibes and ended up blown away. Now, let’s break it down track by track, because these songs deserve some love.
Ratings by song
Maritime
8/10 – Really dig the guitar riffs, has a great pace. A pretty simple song lyrically, using maritime metaphors to express how badly they don’t understand someone but really need to understand. I really like the song. It sounds like it could have been a single for the airwaves.
Calamine
8/10 – This sounds more like a deep track from Hot Mulligan or something, with slightly tamer vocals. Which is great, I love Hot Mulligan. I really dig the melody from the guitar. The vocals are passionate. He’s singing about something he doesn’t believe in. Early in the track he sings about anesthesia, so I think it might be about addiction.
Useless and Comfortable
10/10 – I really, really like this one. Sounds like a Third Eye Blind ballad. Damn, that’s it, they remind me a little of Third Eye Blind, which is an all time great from the 90s by the way. The vocals really stand out the most in this song and the guitar is more support.
Torn
8/10 – This track has the most listens on the album on Spotify. It’s good, but to me it definitely isn’t the strongest. I do feel a little bit of an 80s punk The Replacements vibe on this one and I love that. But other parts of the song feel very 90s. Just a simple song about life and being torn about it’s meaning. Pretty good stuff. Looks like they made a music video for this one, the only I’ve found from this album, but they have videos for others on the Flycatcher band website.
Skin My Teeth
9/10 – Very short song, very catchy chorus, very emotional and calm, I wanted much more of it but appreciate it for what it is. I think he’s hoping someone’s proud of what he’s done. I feel that, man.
Circles
10/10 – My favorite on the album. This one starts really quiet, a bit of a bluesy Chance Peña vibe. Then it has a bridge and then it fucking crescendos your fucking ass off and oh boy do I love songs that do that more than anything in music. This one takes me back to those alt songs of the late 90s early 2000s that would chill me out in a meditative way and then it would let out all those emotions with me. The message is clear here I think. He’s getting the runaround from someone, he really needs to know if they love him.
Ok hold on we’re not done yet here…
According to genius.com where I went to listen along to the lyrics, there should be 3 more songs on this album, Empathy at track 4, Moving Forward at 7, and No Good at 8. They weren’t on the album in Spotify for me. So that sucks. But I found them on Bandcamp. Being honest here, I didn’t even know about these when I started writing the review, so the album was so good I had to write about it before even knowing these additional 3 great tracks existed that make it even better.
Empathy
10/10 – Damn, why isn’t this on Spotify? What a great song. What a great message. So many lacking empathy and these lyrics, and these guitar melodies, are asking people to wake the fuck up and try to listen to other people and see that they’re looking for the easy ways out in life because life is not so fucking easy for all of us. This song is fucking great all-around. Probably my second favorite and it’s not even on my damn streaming platform.
Moving Forward
10/10 – Wow, man…ok now I’ve got a third favorite behind Empathy and Circles. I guess I can’t depend on spotify so much, I’m going to have to figure out how to buy this album. This song has so many interesting things going all around. Passionate vocals, strong guitar melodies, and a message about wanting more out of life. It’s just great.
No Good
9/10 – Another strong song. He’s got nothing to show for all his efforts, he sings. A strong, catchy chorus, about being no good at anything. I really feel that, man. But damn guys, while I know where this is coming from, you’re going places and ARE good at making rock music.
They’ve got a couple other albums, a strong variety of music, they try a lot of different things and it doesn’t all sound like this album i’m reviewing but it’s all good. Espeically their latest single ‘Brother’ that is gaining traction nationally, and is a great song, like I said.
I am having a lot of fun listening to these guys and really appreciate what they’ve put out there. These ratings always change as songs grow on me, they’re probably all at least 9s, honestly and more 10s. It doesn’t look like they have this one for sale on vinyl anywhere but their album Stunt is which now I need to go listen to more. On I go to follow Flycatcher on Instagram as I’m a new fan for sure.
Check them out now
They got me to sign up for bandcamp by the way, I’ll link to them there in hopes that’s better for indie bands.
And here’s Flycather’s new single Brother:
12/30/2024
