Charlie Wilder’s recent solo EP, This Is Bad, feels like stumbling across your old diaries while nursing a hangover you swore you’d never get again. The singer-songwriter is baring it all, delivering a full-fledged musical confessional soaked in a reckless heartache that doesn’t quite leave you when it’s long gone.
Drawing inspiration from what he calls “years of bad decisions and alcohol abuse,” these three tracks, written over the last 10 years, ooze with honest emotion as Wilder frames these compositions as love letters to his youth.
Musically, the project is straightforwardly indie-rock, and develops movement through chugging guitar crescendos, gripping choruses and consistent drum builds and falls.
“What I Thought” is the standout of the trio; it pulls back from its ambitious predecessors, but not without leaving a trail of distortion and tension in its wake. Wilder raspily croons—“But it takes time/And it takes love/And we never had both at once”—the delivering the kind of romantic tug and pull we’ve all related to at one point. “Off of You” showcases his ability to blend a melancholic, almost detached vocal style with dynamic production that’s both polished and rough around the edges.
And while we’re going backwards, the opening jammer “Anywhere You Go” builds with steady intensity with driving rhythms, wrapped together with Wilder’s strained vocals that pledge to let a former lover be if that’s their choice.
This Is Bad encapsulates the bittersweet feeling of fleeting youth and solidified memories. It’s left us not only feeling reflective and longing for those wild days, but also wanting more from this promising local musician. Charliewilder.bandcamp.com/music.
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