Years in the making, midwestern emo trio Arcadia Grey have returned with their sophomore album Casually Crashing. The record is a swirling thematic blend of the mental minutiae and catastrophic existentialism inherent to young adulthood with particular focus on developing and defining one’s identity across multiple contexts. The tracks wonderfully display the group’s continuously growing chemistry, message and musicianship.
In the first line of single “Made 4 Love”, singer/guitarist Coraline Kunda softly wonders “maybe she’s just not made for love”. The line isn’t delivered to be dramatic or seemingly for any more than a drop of pity. Instead, it seems more of an earnest, almost bluntly curious dip into the familiar questions of “who am I?” and “What do I deserve?”. In the 5 years since the admittedly hastily recorded but excellent debut Konami Code, Arcadia Grey has had time. Time - largely thanks to the pandemic and some commuting (and eventual move) from their original Carmel, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois to think. In those 5 years, the members, Coraline Kunda, Nat Breedan and Cooper Bruton entered their early to mid twenties and spend time considering their paths, from past to present and their music would be represented. It is through this process that Casually Crashing exists, the themes scale from the microscopic -roommate squabbles-, to existential grandeur
how to live and survive as oneself in a spiraling society. At the center of it all is a band investigating their place as individuals, what they want, what they deserve and who deserves to take it all in with them.
In the partially forced, partially intentional time between records, the band was able to focus more directly on how their songs would sound. In part, this allows them to more directly lay out their influences - the sonic and emotional heft of Pinkerton to the smiling in the face of horror and whimsy of Motion City Soundtrack. The result is a fun mix of genuine humor, riffs, self-interrogation and outright jams. “Kevin Pickles and the Great Pool Noodle Excursion” is a band instrumentally in sync, moving through driving verse sections into a riffy, dance-y chorus. Breedan sings about working through and confronting the frustration of an unhelpful at best roommate, with supportive harmonies from the rest of the band. The guitars and drums, beat furiously together, lightening up in unison and driving all as one. “Dwight 52” pounds through an ear knocking drum intro into a wall of distorted guitars that bounce underneath Breedan’s falsetto in the prechorus. In both tracks, the chorus is slowed with an emphasis on vocal presence adding a very satisfying and catchy core to the otherwise crunchy distortion.
everything is miserable & I am brooding alone in my dark dark room” begins with a Weezer-esque stomping call and response of the rhythm section and Kunda’s fuzzed out riffing. She sings about feeling surrounded by helplessness to the needs of the world around. Even backed by an affected harmony her voice sounds a familiar mix of gentle and anxious before building to a raucous crescendo where she sings “why oh why does everyone I love want to die?”. The companion “The Rat Fortress” echoes a communal malaise over a swinging rock burner. It reaches for something to figure out how much life takes and how much does one really have to give.
Opener “Top Deck Jinzo” and closer “Halley” find Kundo venturing into her coming to terms with her gender identity and the implications on the relationships in her family. Despite the weight of the subject, “Jinzo” is effortlessly catchy with Kundo’s expressive voice bounding from falsetto to belt to whisper. The instrumentals a contrastingly bright backdrop ala mid 2000’s Motion City Soundtrack or Ludo. “Halley” hurries over rushing guitars that dive deeper, perhaps more drop tuned, and punch harder. Both tracks intersperse more modern emo riffing throughout the tracks for head banging flair. What’s immediately apparent in these two songs is Kunda reconciling feelings of instability and lack of security among close people around her. Interestingly, these feelings can be found rectified in punk pounding highlight “P Daddy Hoodie”. The title an homage to fellow emo band Prince Daddy & the Hyena and their iconic green hoodie. The song displays profoundly that safety and consistency can exist in the inanimate but that doesn’t reduce their power. While much of the record jets between anxieties and frustrations and trauma “P Daddy Hoodie” is one that states “this is where I feel safe”. In the context of the record, the importance of that statement is paramount. Unfortunately, the existentialism may not go away but that just means the people, the music, the green hoodies that can provide that feeling of security are ever more important.
In first line of the last stanza of “Made 4 Love”, Coraline reluctantly and just as softly posits “maybe I’m not meant to fall in love/or maybe I am, I guess/I fear I’m finally enough”. This shy admittance of self worth brings together the context of Casually Crashing. Through horror, annoyance, trauma and mutual malaise we are still here. Resilient, curious and introspective, there is security, love and worth in yourself and those around you no matter how, when or how long it takes for you to find yourself in them.
