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* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Well Wisher
ALBUM...: This Is Fine
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Indie Rock
YEAR....: 2018
LABEL...: 6131 Records
COUNTRY.: USA
PLACE...: Asbury Park, NJ
FORMED..: 2016
ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0
BITRATE.: 256 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 10
SIZE....: 55.92 MB
URL..: https://www.facebook.com/wellwishernj
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Fine
https://www.getalternative.com/interview-well-wisher-discuss-debut-record-fine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_Wisher
- TRACKLIST
1 Believe 2:33
2 Sweet 2:56
3 Why Not You 3:02
4 Sad Like Me 3:42
5 I Know Better 2:32
6 Right As Rain 3:30
7 Leave Me Like You Do 2:36
8 All My Love 3:24
9 Half Bad 3:15
10 Waste My Time 2:54
Total Playtime: 30:24
On their debut album 'This Is Fine', New Jersey's Well Wisher work their way
through ten guitar-centric songs like seasoned pros. They whip up big, lush
melodies, crunchy riffs and bouncy bass lines like it's nothing and seem to
have hooks for days, which accentuate their heart on sleeve styled lyrics.
The one-two opening combo that is 'Believe' and 'Sweet' brings to mind bands
like Letters To Cleo and Charly Bliss, before the band takes it down a notch
so lead vocalist Natalie Newbold can voice her regrets over a breakup in 'Why
Not You' and 'Sad Like Me'. But Newbold is not one to get beaten down as you
can tell from song titles like 'I Know Better,' which sounds like it could
have been taken off a Muncie Girls album, and the very honest 'Waste My
Time'.
Granted, it gets a bit harder towards the end of the album to tell the songs
apart. But there's no denying that Well Wisher know their way around a punky
pop hook.
*
From the opening notes of Well Wisher's debut full length, This is Fine, it's
clear the band are not afraid to brandish mighty guitar riffage front and
center. In fact, they tiptoe perfectly between sounds that, on hasty
assessment, could be classified singularly as punk, alternative, or even pop
rock; yet, they seem to draw only the best elements of each, avoiding the
less desirable pitfalls associated with these genres. The resulting sound is
ambitious and raw, dynamic and powerful. Some of that power is owed to the
deep current of lyrical content flowing just below the surface of seemingly
happy, hook-laden tunes. Singer/guitarist Natalie Newbold mined her own past
in a tumultuous, long-term relationship for the bulk of the inspiration
throughout This is Fine, resulting in a level of candor and self-reflection
not often embedded in such catchy rock songs. This potent recipe has earned
Well Wisher a reputation as one of the most-promising new bands to arise from
the New Jersey DIY scene. Originally started as a solo project for Newbold,
Well Wisher has taken shape as a full band, touring frequently despite their
relative newness. They have already shared the stage with New Found Glory,
The Movielife, Blis, Thin Lips, Kississippi, and many more, and plan to
continue touring extensively throughout the remainder of this year and into
the next.
*
New Jersey upstarts Well Wisher sure know how to make an entrance. Their
debut album, This Is Fine, feels less like a rookie move and more like one by
seasoned rock veterans. The band works through a compelling combination of
punk sonics and pop melodies as though it's been at it for years. The band's
message doesn't materialize right away on the 10-song record. However, Well
Wisher displays not only a mastery of its sound, but also its lyricism.
The opening notes of the guitar-dominant "Believe" shows Well Wisher has no
fear of elaborating on the hard-hitting nature of punk with a personal touch.
The song's cacophony of distorted riffs, commanding beat and catchy melody
likens the band to a second coming of an All We Know Is Falling-era Paramore.
Other songs like the regretful note-to-self "I Know Better" also follow the
familiar pop-punk hallmarks like youthful vocals and stomp-along beats.
A wealth of personal experience informs the lyrical flow of This Is Fine.
Lead vocalist Natalie Newbold has said it was heavily inspired by a past
long-term relationship. These vulnerable themes charge this record with an
incredibly honest and uniquely raw delivery.
The melancholy but enduringly hopeful "Right as Rain" and the album's
brutally realistic retrospective love song "Waste My Time" displays the
cathartic outlet Newbold finds in her words. She works through past
heartbreak. These songs narrate the progression from the valleys to the
peaks, exemplifying the beautiful foliage that grows following a disaster. In
this way, This is Fine becomes a foil for the meme with which it inexplicably
shares a name. Instead of pretending everything's actually fine until life
breaks her, Newbold acknowledges her broken situation and attempts to
transcend it.
This is Fine strikes a balance between the dual tributaries of pop-punk in a
way largely absent from similar acts coming up today. Cuts like the angsty
"Half Bad" feel like those offered up by an early-2000s Letters to Cleo, or
even a Bleed American-era Jimmy Eat World, through agile guitar lines and
danceable drum bashing.
At other times, such as on the angry but heartfelt "Why Not You," it feels
like Infinity on High-era Fall Out Boy. While the band is still trying to
solidify where on the spectrum of pop and punk it wants to exist, there's
time for experimentation and development. Well Wisher puts everything on the
table and proves its not afraid to wear its heart and influence on its
sleeve. The band comes out swinging with solid songwriting chops. Its
understanding of how to impart believable emotion tops the work of bands
several albums in.
*
Burning a picture down to its ashes signifies release, a permanence of an
ended relationship. Throughout pop culture, it's become a notorious image for
moving on from a toxic individual in your life and for some, in practice, has
become a cathartic action of acceptance. The act of burning the images that
make up your past is an understanding that you are no longer holding on to
it. On Well Wisher's debut LP This Is Fine, the doll burning on the cover is
an important image to understand what's within.
The album opens up with a thunderous guitar riff wrapping in and out of
"Believe." Right away, you'll notice the crunch of the guitars. It's hard to
miss with the heights of the aforementioned riff. Throughout the album, the
guitars move between distorted, hazy bends and drones to authoritative 90's
crunch. It recalls contemporaries like Charly Bliss, albeit without their
caffeine drive. The bouncy pop-punk of "Leave Me Like You Do" and plodding
lows around the snap of the snare drum in "Why Not You" will have you
recalling Four Minute Mile-era Get Up Kids. In fact, the indie-punk of the
90s is not a bad reference for the band and one Well Wisher acknowledge.
Halfway through the album, you may find yourself stumbling upon a familiar
lyric. In the bridge of "I Know Better," the band drop out letting singer and
guitarist Natalie Newbold deliver a Jawbreaker homage singing "what's the
meanest you can be / to someone you say you love" as droning guitars take
over. It builds till the close with her belting out the title. The lyrics are
filled with same type of deadpan observations about relationships and the
scene found on Jawbreaker's material, albeit with a 2018 update.
On "Leave Me Like You Do," Newbold sings about the tangling of scene politics
and relationships, unpacking hidden internet comments meant to intentionally
damage. The title and "Right As Rain" play off the This Is Fine meme with the
chorus of "this is fine / just a temperamental time." "Half Bad" notes "my
world's on fire / and I'm left smiling / thinking of you / it's not half bad
/ my world fell apart / I'm failure's art." It's a deftly loaded closing
couplet.
All of this brings us back to the doll burning on the cover. Newbold
originally started this project solo following the breakup of her previous
band The Dollys, a breakup that came with the end of a relationship within
the band. This Is Fine captures that. It listens like a complete piece of art
sharing a story that is as permanent in its resolution as the cover suggests.
In fact, one might enjoy this over a sip of tea.
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