A Sonically Thriving New Single from Franklin
Belfast's Franklin just dropped a new single that incorporates some of the best elements of fuzz, garage, grunge, and pop rock by bringing together massive Sonic guitar tones, melodic overcoats, a pop approach, and some inventive songwriting that just feels completely explosive most of the time, to be honest.
The new track is called "Tiny Chairs", and it comes right in with a pretty heavy sound. You can feel loads of this grunge influence shining through; the guitars themselves are sort of gritty and dirty with that classic fuzz tone distortion, and you get some really cool 'stop-go' time signatures reminiscent of old school, mid-90s underground heavy rock bands.
When the verses kick in, the guitars go clean, and you have these great layers that start happening. The guitars are clean during those verses, you still have a few chords that are hit by the heavy guitars in the underbelly, giving it a bit of a vast sort of feel, and as it creeps back towards that chorus, things start to get heavier.
I absolutely love how the vocals are so welcoming and inviting. They have such a warm, melodic set of melodies that really feel positive and sort of bright over this vast undertone, and it works like a charm.
During the verses, you can hear some reverb effect on the vocal, so it all feels a little bit wet, and this works very well for the production of the song, so you have a little bit of distancing and just a great production style to the track.
My favorite part of the entire thing has to be this great bridge section that they plant in towards the end of the track that makes way for the final few choruses, which also have additional guitar stuff over them. I love this bridge because it gives such a great calm before everything explodes again.
For me, growing up in a time when all of this great heavy rock music was coming to light, this band reminds me firmly of a cross between what I would consider Weezer and the Smashing Pumpkins.
Vocally, it's neither, but musically, the band gives you that feel because of how the song comes through.
The vocals have a different approach, and I think that's part of what makes this work so well.
They still belt out when they want to, but have this sort of smoothness to them that works incredibly well in terms of balancing out the textures of the heavy guitars and everything else going on.
The drumming is intense and also means more towards a grunge style, which is great because technically, this is what most would consider to be sort of a grunge track, but there's a lot more going on. There are plenty of layers happening throughout this song's unfolding that make it impactful and sort of addictive.
This is an absolute banger of a track that gives me bouts of nostalgia but also a refreshing feeling at the same time. It's a song that stands tall among heavy rock Singles simply because it beckons classic stuff but also brings their own approach to the table simultaneously.
It's been a while since I've heard a band that was able to produce that sort of explosive chorus action the way these guys do it.
There's a certain element of heaviness that comes in during those choruses, and it's because of the way they bring things into them. The verses and pre-choruses flow into those choruses themselves, but when they hit, they're just gigantic, and this is where the impact lies.
I definitely adored the progression or arrangement of this track. It was really well thought out, and it makes you want to go see them perform it live.
This is one of those bands that is so sonically thriving on record that you want to see what it's like in a live performance setting.
Those guitars are again, so driving and huge to the point where it almost feels like it's all peaking. Like the levels are too high, almost. I love that. It gives it such gusto and builds on the energy that they give off as well.
This is also something very important. The bank is off heavy-handed energy throughout this entire track, but again, this is balanced between the verses and the choruses.
This was an awesome single, and I would urge anyone who loves classic '90s mainstream or underground heavy rock bands, or anyone who grew up during that time, to check it out. Listening to those kinds of bands to listen to this track.
You will absolutely not get let down whatsoever.
Check this out right now and turn it up.
