To me, Indie music has always seemed like Rock but with lower production, a generally chiller vibe, and the freedom for the artist to do whatever they’d like, be it for better or for worse. So where does album fall in that?
Well, I won’t keep you waiting: it’s definitely for the better.
Sidney Gish’s 2017 No Dogs Allowed definitely sounds like it was written by a 20 year old in 2017, and I mean that in the best way possible. The sentiments and general feelings of anxiety and questioning of self worth shining throughout the album give are really given meaning by understanding who wrote them, and gives the realization that, if nothing else, this album is undeniably genuine.
The song opens on an odd tune, “Bird Tutorial.” It’s odd in that nothing else on this album is like it. It seems to use audio ripped from a tape about teaching a parrot to talk, and uses music to make the recorded audio into a small song. Is it gimmicky? Absolutely. But what matters is that it’s really good and very fun, and that it furthermore starts as a strong intro to the album.
“Sin Triangle” however, gets to the meat of it. I said before that this album has running themes of anxiety and questioning of self worth, and this track makes that abundantly clear with its chorus opening with “Two-faced bitches never lie and therefore I never lie.” Another thing to note is that the vocals aren’t perfect, there’s cracks and notes that just feel off-key, but honestly it works to these songs advantage. It gives it that extra edge and sense of genuineness. The whole production here does give off a sense of amateurishness, but again while this could be a negative, it’s instead another aspect of this album’s charm. As for the lyrics, besides the subject matter, there seems to be a focus on simplicity, yet with strong meanings behind every simple phrase. It’s certainly artistic to say the least. “Good Magicians” caries forward the same quality with a nice vocal filter and a fun pace that carries throughout the entire song.
“Sophisticated Space” stuck out to me. It’s a song about college from the negative point of view from someone socially inept, weighed down by their anxiety and resorting to their imagination to grin and bear it. At least that’s what I get from the song, and I must be honest, it’s something I find deeply relatable. Maybe not as much now as I did my freshman year, but there are still days where I just feel like the elephant in every room and this song really speaks to that.
“I’m Filled With Stake, and Cannot Dance” reminds me that I absolutely adore the song titles on this album. This is a slower song, not to say the only one. Unfortunately if I had to pick a song to my least favorite, it would be this one, but it’s still very good, which I think speaks volumes about the quality of this album.
“Where the Sidewalk Ends” however, is the exact opposite, taking its place as my favorite song on this album. The harmonica is wonderful and Sidney’s vocal work here is an absolute knockout. The falsetto in the chorus is especially pleasing to the ear. The optimistic, upbeat music and the whimsical half-happy/half-sad vocals exemplify everything I love about this album. If there’s one song I’d recommend you, the reader, listen to off of this album, then it’d be this one. That and “Impostor Syndrome,” but we haven’t got there yet, have we?
“Mouth Log” serves as a punch to remind you how depressing this album can get, and might be the deepest cutting of them all, “I Eat Salads Now” has a very strong chorus with fantastic backing vocals the second time around, “Rat in the City” is just haunting in a spectacular way, “Not but for You, Bunny” is a fantastic tragic love song, and “Persephone” is both fun and a bit funny, especially the ending. It may seem as though I’m rushing through these songs, and maybe that they even did have as much impact as the previous tracks, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I adore them all, but all for very similar reasons, and I just don’t want to repeated myself and just gush over this album the whole time, mainly because I don’t think that’d be very entertaining to read.
The other reason may be that I’m so excited to talk about “Impostor Syndrome.” This is the song I heard first from the album and the reason I decided to listen to the whole thing. This song is another representation of everything I love about this album. It really takes the simple phrases with deep meaning approach mentioned previously to a whole new level. I never could have imagined a singer mentioning “PetSmart” and “Walmart” in a song being so powerful and relatable. Relatability, it’s such a great strength of this album. This song also does something I like in that the lyrics of its chorus reference another song, specifically “I Eat Salads Now.” The airplane noises and announcement at the end is a very interesting touch and it really made me think it was the album’s closer, but surprise, we still have the destination of our journey to go.
That destination is called “New Recording 180 (New Year’s Eve)” and it serves as a fantastic album closer, with a surprisingly optimistic ending to even out the rampant anxiety and depression. It’s the subtle optimism littered throughout the album fully realized, perhaps in the singular lyric “There is a lot you were able to do.” The beauty is that the line can be interpreted both negatively and positively, up to the listeners choice I suppose. As you can tell, I choose to interpret it brightly, as I feel it provides the most closure that way.
Overall, this album was an absolute treat, a little known gem that I’m very pleased to have stumbled across. Maybe it won’t resonate as well with an older audience as it does a younger one, and perhaps that’s it’s greatest flaw, but at the end of the day even if the lyrics don’t connect as well, the music is still fantastic.
My overall rating of this album is a 7/10, a rating given for albums that go well above the average and simply provide for a great listening experience.
As always, thank you, dear reader, for being a reader, and I await next week where I’ll be giving my thoughts on Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake.
A Journey Through Music 