Local Review: Of The Valley – Roses

Of The Valley
Roses

Self-Released
Street: 09.13.18
Of The Valley = IDLES + Blink 182

Getting ready to review Of The Valley’s new EP, Roses, on a snowy afternoon at the beginning of a holiday week, I was expecting fiddles and acoustic guitars with sensitive folk musings. I was quickly and pleasantly surprised to get an immediate hit of adrenaline. Of The Valley’s fine EP starts fast with the track “Winter Wind,” matching the sideways-blowing snow outside my window at the exact moment I am writing this. The opening track doesn’t just ease in—its frenetic pace engulfed me like merging into freeway traffic. “Winter Wind” is a song about lost love that thankfully doesn’t just whine out into emptiness, it shouts out to the world: “I can’t let go!” The love interest is long gone but the ghost remains: “I can feel you breathing / Even though you’re not here.” The chug-chug-chug guitar rhythm propels the track forward, dragging a shout-and-response vocal delivery along for the ride. The track howls with an intense ferocity that sounds brand new and nostalgic at the same time.

The title track is more of the same complicated heartache. “I keep waking up from every dream / That you are constantly haunting.” And the sad denial: “Everyone’s asking what’s up with us / But I just act like I don’t give a fuck / Because I don’t.” Not true—the broken heart is an open wound. The final track on this EP,  “I Don’t Want To Be Void Anymore,” delivers one last gut wrench: “I dug this hole so far down, I came across the bones that you left / And I realized I witnessed the agony of watching you give up.” Pure-grade lovesick brutality from a band hitting on all cylinders.

Pop songs have always been about affairs of the heart. Of The Valley understands this—they just channeled it into a punk rock growl. Of The Valley absolutely murders all three songs on this EP. I hope their hearts stay broken because I can’t wait for a full record. –Russ Holsten

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