Knope – Broken Couch | Track Premiere
/You know what would sound great right now? A gig. As of today, I am 179 days without a concert, and there’s nothing I want more than to be packed into a sweaty basement drinking cheap beer and screaming along to songs that I love with dozens of other fans. I miss tipping $5 at the door, I miss the comforting sight of people smoking on a porch, I miss coming home with armfuls of new t-shirts that no one at my day job will understand… hell, I even miss my earplugs.
While we’re still a ways away from any of these feelings returning, we’re lucky to have a new Knope song that captures the energy of a gig better than anything I’ve heard over the course of quarantine.
Following up their excellent collaboration with Kicksie back in January, “Broken Couch” is the first single off the band’s upcoming EP An Exercise In Patience. Beginning with a thrashing volley of guitar, bass, and drums, I can practically see the pit opening up within the first few seconds of this song. If I close my eyes, I can almost feel the hands on my back as if I’m in someone’s basement being pushed against a wall of strangers illuminated by the soft glow from a string of multi-colored Christmas lights.
Within seconds, lead singer Jack David bursts into the track, spitting bile at things completely out of his control before recounting a tale of teenage abandonment that becomes the foundation for the rest of the song. “I kinda felt like I was wasting your time,” he explains, grappling with decade-past trauma as the instrumental gnashes beneath him.
Guided by an even-keel bassline, mathy guitar taps, and swift drumline, the song propels itself forward in time, introducing new characters and events that find the roles reversing as David now feels like he’s the one wasting someone else’s time. Eventually, the song returns to where it started. Now in search of some form of closure or acceptance, David finds himself returning to the scene of the first verse with a new outlook, arriving at the conclusion “I kinda feel like you've been wasting my time,” achieving some form of redemption before the song quiets to a close, leaving us to fill in the rest.
The fact that Knope is able to pair this heartfelt narrative (complete with a clever lyrical through line and three-act structure) in just under three minutes is a testament to their ability as writers. The decision to pair this sentimental storytelling with such an energetic instrumental is an arresting contrast that will have you coming back for multiple re-listens, hungry what comes next in the EP. On the bright side, at least we all have some time to memorize the lyrics before our next communal basement singalong, whenever that may be.
