"I think you're funny / Just watch what you say around me / I'm soft, squishy, pink / But I'll eat the meek..."
The sinewy punchy storytelling of "Berate Me" by Brooklyn's queer, female and non-binary alt indie three piece Razor Braids compels you to lean in and listen intently instantly. The combination of heavy guitars, dissonant distortions, quiet / loud aesthetics and the kind of storytelling that makes you want to comb over each word (and between them) are told to you with an evocatively artful vocal countenance with harmonies that stick to you easily. The punk meets indie rock constructions are full of what might feel like sharp comfortable guitars shapes but once you settle in the song subvert your expectations.
I think you're funny
Just watch what you say around me
I'm soft, squishy, pink
But I'll eat the meek
My anxiety keeps me from sleep
Did you text me
Just watch what you say around me
I'm soft, squishy, pink
But I'll eat the meek
My anxiety keeps me from sleep
Did you text me
The poetry, dark, at times acerbic and at other times painfully vulnerable can feel both self deprecating and powerfully strong, unease and anxiety arm wrestling with self love and survivorship. The refrain that to me feels more like a pre-chorus and chorus goes like this:
Call out my flaws
Condescend to me
I'm used to these kinds of things
Berate me
Knock me off my feet
Until you can barely see me
Until I can't see
Condescend to me
I'm used to these kinds of things
Berate me
Knock me off my feet
Until you can barely see me
Until I can't see
AND later there is a sense that abuse might be ok having survived it as in 'it made me stronger' and it feels like a gut punch but maybe the broken mirror here is one of self reflection. Maybe like an MMA fighter, the fight as in 'a relationship' has to be one we all engage in to know what not to accept... next time. I dunno, I am probably overthinking it or putting a smile on a song that is just fucking sad but so fucking real. Or maybe I don't have the ability to read things in the correct way.
I do know one thing, I know someone who when they finally found someone nice as a potential partner had a hard time trusting that person. Hard to trust fall when you literally didn't know what real love is and feels like.
"Berate Me" is a great song full of emotional complexities and meanings that I may think I know but will not know until I speak with the band. Maybe that will happen.
Razor Braids' new album "Big Wave" drops on June 7th, 2024.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/razorbraids/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0MjyFpYWU1nBFKYoZ4UpvT
Razor Braids is a Brooklyn-based, queer, female and non-binary identifying rock band that combines a heavy punk energy with an indie rock vulnerability culminating in passionate live shows and a dynamic sound anchored in a 90s alternative ethos. In simpler terms, a bunch of bing bongs.
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