By Jack

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We’ve covered Askies before: we could cover them every week. They’re one of the best bands in Leeds at the moment, and ‘Subject To Change’ is their masterpiece.

There’s nothing extreme or pulse-quickening about ‘Subject To Change’ but that isn’t the point. It’s a mood-piece, an expression of black sky thinking and the bittersweet sensation that comes from living in the past. It’s a song defined by subtle changes in mood, temperature and intensity.

Young bands tend to write with one finger on the fast forward button, jumping to early choruses and clumsy bridges as a way to artificially generate intensity. What Askies do so well is control the mood. They resist those urges, allowing the track to play out organically, simmering with tension like a thunder cloud that never brings rain.

While the progression is gentle, it allows the melody to subtly ebb and flow, reaching an ending that doesn’t feel like an ending to anything. Because this isn’t a song about clean breaks, but rather memories and emotions and experiences bleeding into one another, always changing and never set or still.

What a brilliant song.

Follow Askies here.