Norwich-based indie band Chest are back with their EP, ‘never really here’. It’s frenetic and punchy, packed with standout hooks from beginning to end; there’s a wistful ache running through it, the kind I thought we’d lost to the 2010s.
The EP opens with ‘SO BETTER NOW’, which is fast paced and guitar heavy from the first bar, building momentum, not allowing for wasted space. The last 30 seconds particularly stuck with me; the riffing builds and builds, allowing a neat transition into ‘GOSPEL’ which is slower and broodier, a proper gear change. Chest never seem to run out of fresh ideas; the hook “I haven’t slept in a couple hours” is an instant earworm that you’ll be humming without meaning to. The line “over and under, kicked out” runs through the track like a half remembered encounter, something you can’t quite place or shake. “I have a vision,” vocalist Joel Reader declares partway through; it feels prophetic.
‘MACHINE’ is aptly named, mechanical in the best way, tightly wound without ever tipping into clinical or cold. “It’s all a bit obscene” is a catchy hook that takes a step back to examine just how strange it is to be this plugged in all the time. The track is restless. It feels tuned to something bigger, a sense of permanently being switched on, and having no way to switch off.
‘JULIA’ is a completely different register, melancholic and slower. There’s a reference to Julia’s mother that hints at hurt that runs deeper than what’s happening in the song. Reader calls out for Julia across the chorus, again and again, but the music tells you what the lyrics won’t say outright: she’s long gone and calling isn’t going to bring her back.
Last but not least, ‘NUMB’ slows everything right down. It’s comforting and resigned all at once, weary but doesn’t indulge in self pity. It’s numb but never empty; we feel every underlying emotion beneath that numbness. Chest let the pain linger rather than looking away from it, echoing the same restraint ‘JULIA’ showed: small stretches with no vocals at all, the instruments are left to do the talking. A relationship has been abruptly severed here, and the track can’t quite move past it. The section beginning “I had the strangest dream” strikes a chord; it’s a line that stops you in your tracks, searching for something it already knows it’s lost.
Five brilliant tracks, utilising different energies and sounds and styles, without a single wasted transition. ‘never really here’ knows exactly what it is; it’s a living, breathing entity in its own right and it thrums with hurt and confusion. You can hear it in the way ‘JULIA’ can’t stop calling out for someone that won’t answer, or the wordless stretches on ‘NUMB’ that say more than the lyrics do. Chest are definitely ones to watch.
