“People will say anything; sometimes you gotta reach deep,” begins the second verse of Nerves Junior’s new track “Goodnight Nobody.” It’s perhaps not the most original of sentiments, but considering the year that Nerves Junior has had, you can be sure that it holds a lot more meaning to them than may appear on the surface. After a year of ups and downs that involved losing most of their original lineup, including their singer, the two remaining founding members were left to slowly rebuild not only their lineup, but their sound. There must have been plenty of talk about whether they would continue, or whether they even should, but they did exactly what they outline in “Goodnight Nobody” – they didn’t listen and they reached deep.
The group is now back to being a quintet and the fact that they’ve maintained the name Nerves Junior speaks volumes to their belief in their dense, intelligent sound and their desire to maintain and push it further. “Goodnight Nobody” demonstrates exactly that; the track opens up with skittering and frenetic drums surfing alongside flickering beeps in a sea of oozing bass and expansive guitarwork before the song starts to really breathe, letting the various layers come and go naturally. The second half of the track sees multiple effects and synths thrown in and quickly reeled back out again, but never unnaturally or distractingly. Much like every track on their debut album As Bright As Your Night Light, each listen seems to reveal something new, almost infinitely. Their upcoming EP Craters, from which “Goodnight Nobody” is taken, may only be a slight three tracks, but with this much depth to their sound, there’ll still be plenty to soak up.
