Company
from the EP Not Really Scared
2008
iTunes

If M83’s Saturdays = Youth is a nostalgia-laden revisit of adolescence’s more forlorn melodramas, An Horse and their debut EP Not Really Scared over-fuel the formula and accelerate it into the age’s hyperawareness. This is punk with a heart of uncracked pop in the bar-chorded veins of Pretty Girls Make Graves or Tegan and Sara: crash cymbals wash the senses as this duo keep the alleys clear out behind the genre’s over-stylized facades. Amidst rolling tom breaks and resonating choruses of “I’m not really scared,” An Horse are tapping exposed, raw puberty in a catchy and likable way, which is sort of feat in itself. This has been done so many times you’d think it fetid, but this EP announced itself amid an afternoon of varied listening.

Each song seems to build upon the last, from the short and tight “Postcards” and its hummable “Two postcards in a month or so / Well I don’t know / I just don’t know,” to the overdrive in the extended outro to “Shoes Watch,” which is the EP’s one instance during which it allows its excesses unrestrained reign. Most of Not Really Scared keeps it simple: distorted guitar over sugared drum beats, major chord enthusiasm catalyzing some instantly recognizable version of heartbroken universality. But it’s that simplicity, and immediacy, that latches on before analysis has had its turn to disassemble.

It’s unclear how well their formula of uncomplicated pop punk might hold up over a track list twice Not Really Scared‘s length. I hope they manage to maintain this EP’s nearness of volume without resorting to undercooked ballads or overambitious concept songs, but for these five songs, and especially ending as “Shoes Watch” does, An Horse can make a believer of the most cynical of listeners. It’s a Happy Meal of a listen, and a surprisingly satiating one at that.

About The Author

Avatar photo

Founded in Madison, WI in 2005, Jonk Music is a daily source for new music.

One Response

  1. Jonk

    Please put on that record again
    and I will put on that shirt you’ve been
    wearing around
    You’ve been wearing around
    It’s times like this I think too much
    It’s times like this I think too much
    Oh please don’t think too much
    Oh please don’t think too much

    ‘Cause I can’t let you in
    ‘Cause these walls have been built
    No I can’t let you in
    ‘Cause these wall have been built

    But you said I’m out on a ledge
    Come stand with me
    I need the company
    I need the company

    My face has turned red
    But it’s not from something you just said
    Oh I’m blushing on the inside
    It’s those damn green eyes
    And panel by panel and piece by piece this all fits together
    But it’s not what you think
    Oh there I go again
    Oh there I go again

    You said I’m out on a ledge
    Come stand with me
    I need the company
    I need the company and
    I’m trying to get you in
    I’m trying to get you over and
    I’m trying to get you in
    I’m trying to get you over and
    I’m trying to be brave
    I’m trying to be brave
    I’m trying to be brave
    I’m trying to be brave

    But you’re listening to every word I say and I’m trying not to give it away
    I like to keep my cards so close
    You like to keep that console on
    And all my broken hearts
    And all my forgettable false starts
    Well you can have them right now
    But you better not look away
    You can have ’em right now but you better not look away
    This me tying to be brave
    You can have ’em right now but you better not look away
    This is me tyring to be brave