February 4, 2022
Written by Amara Sorosiak

OK Cool Wrestle With The Irregularity Of Time on “Songs From The Spare Room

2022 has already been chock-full of great releases, especially in indie and DIY spaces. Chicago’s OK Cool are no exception, starting the year off strong with their new mini-release, “Songs From The Spare Room.” This follows their “Surrealist” EP, released just last March. Despite the brief break between releases, Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist have made enormous strides with their project, inserting pandemic existentialism into their lyrics, contrasting their bright indie and shoegaze-inspired sounds.

“Songs From The Spare Room” consists of two new songs, clocking in at just under four minutes. These four minutes are concentrated with raw alt-rock angst, though, designed to be played on loop. The stand-out touch on these singles are their reverberated vocals, giving the songs a spacey touch and blend with their accompanying instrumentals, complimenting the lyrical content. “Time And A Half,” released on January 21st, kicks off the collection, highlighting how time seems disjointed during the pandemic, with lines like “Hang up Christmas lights in April / and keep the tree up all year ‘round.” This ambiguity makes an appearance in “Time And A Half’s” accompanying music video as well. Through the stop-motion work of Joe Baughman, the video features appearances from Santa Claus, Christmas lights, anthropomorphized socks, and an old-fashioned flip book mouthing the vocals. Between the hard cuts from day to night, the band in different outfits for the different seasons, and the window limited to a view of paper trees, this video perfectly expresses the speed, and artifice, of days spent in isolation, which can, at times, flash before one’s eyes. Over these past two years, with our extended time confined inside, it’s become harder to distinguish between certain holidays or events, or even just remember what day of the week it is, as the uneventfulness has melded every day into one. Yet time is still technically moving forward despite this mundaneness, which can cause a bit of dread, like in OK Cool’s case, as they boldly state “Time’s not real / and it never was.”  This has been a common sentiment for some time now, but now more than ever, it reigns true.

The latter song off “Songs From The Spare Room,” “Self-Sow,” is an affirming ending to this brief release, as its title is synonymous with self-growth. More specifically, the speaker wants to grow beyond a certain person, to the point where they “won’t wonder how you’ve been.” OK Cool gun through “Self-Sow,” establishing a colossal wall of sound consisting of steady power chords and distinctive drums. The song is euphoric both in sound and lyrics, giving its listeners the strength to ascend past any person or scenario that may be keeping them shackled down. Instead of despairing alone, the speaker chooses to grow and change despite their newfound physical loneliness.

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It’s hard to believe music written about time spent in quarantine is coming out already, but as we’ve already established, time’s not real. Regardless, it’s surely an exciting time to be an OK Cool fan, and it’s wonderful to see their creativity continue to shine. Check out “Songs From The Spare Room” out now on all streaming platforms, and last year’s “Surrealist” EP if you haven’t yet.