Stream So Stressed’s Anxious, Captivating New Record, ‘Please Let Me Know’

Sacramento three-piece So Stressed’s second record, Please Let Me Know, is riddled with anxieties and crises. It’s a record that opens with a peripheral vision, on “Fur Sale”—”See you in the corner of my eye / Please don’t die”—before hurtling into a sardonic snarl; “I’m sorry that I’m selfish,” Morgan Fox screams, “Plant flowers where my mouth is.” Kenneth Draper’s drums rarely relent, careening into Andrew Garcia’s pummeling guitars, occasionally smashing out their own tempo, regardless of the noise around it.

But it’s just sweet enough in just the right doses to keep you hanging in there. The relationship trauma of “Old Hiss” is followed by the semi-tonal guitar musings and electronic blips of “Peach.” Sandwiched between the bellowing “Haricot Vert” and fitful closer “Shaved Muscles,” “Holy Spirit Is Evidently at Work” bleeds enough melody out of itself to create something anthemic. The comparisons to Californians past will keep coming: Spazz, for one, though Drive Like Jehu are often a more apt reference point. But by occasionally doubling back to the playful experimentation of their 2012 debut Attracted to Open Mouths, they’ve detached themselves from their local history like a dangling, dislocated shoulder; it’s hard to look away.

After releasing 2015’s The Unlawful Trade of Greco-Roman Art on Meredith Graves’s Honor Press label, Please Let Me Know is out tomorrow on Wavves’ Ghost Ramp. But you can listen to the album in all of its captivating glory below.

Lead photo by Karlos Rene Ayala via PR.

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