CLIFFDIVER – birdwatching | Album Review
/
SideOneDummy Records
I’m tired. Not just in a “Oh, I didn’t get enough sleep last night” kind of way or even a “This has just been a rough week for me” kind of way. It’s been a rough 29 years, and I feel like the past few have taken more than their share off my grand total. As the years speed along, I find new and creative ways to cope with the trauma of the pandemic, the stresses of growing older, and the horrors I witness on a daily basis through the rectangle in my pocket. Daily tasks feel like a struggle, and despite being a social person, spending time with others doesn’t recharge me in the ways that it used to. This feeling of exhaustion and my inability to deal with it is compounded by the sense that I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time. I’m almost 30 years old, and I can’t get through a day or two without feeling like I missed something crucial in my upbringing that makes me “less than” my peers.
However, something I often find myself thinking about is how I’m not alone in feeling this way. Whether it's regarding my employment status, my consistently depleted bank account, general exhaustion and dissatisfaction with my life, or feeling ill-equipped for the world around me, it seems to be a shared trend amongst my generation – and bleeding into the next. There’s a strange, oddly comforting sense of solidarity in that fact, but along with it is an even greater sense of how fucked it is that we all feel this way. Some do a convincing job of pretending these struggles don't affect them in an attempt to push “normalcy,” but it is heartening to see the overwhelming number of people I know uplifting each other and tackling the minutiae of daily life together in the hopes that maybe one day things will improve.
While listening to their latest LP, birdwatching, it’s apparent that eerily similar thoughts are heavy on the minds of Oklahoma-based punk rock band CLIFFDIVER. As a fan of the septet since the release of their last album, Exercise Your Demons, that refreshingly real and uncompromising outlook on life is nothing new to them, especially given what the band has been through in recent years, and I was pleased to discover that this new collection of songs further commits to exploring difficult concepts.
Opening track “thirty, flirty, and thriving!!!” highlights this struggle of being alive for three whole decades and still having absolutely no grasp of what is going on around you. Desperate, honest lyrics “thirty years and I still don’t know shit” repeatedly hit me over the head, echoing the little voices rattling around in my brain and making me feel like I’m the only person in the world who doesn't have their shit together. The single “dayz gone” further piles on these exhausted emotions, daily defeats, and mistrust in those around us and the systems we live in.
CLIFFDIVER have never been strangers to versatility in their albums, and birdwatching is no exception. Upbeat tracks like “team fight tactics” saunter through with bubbly drum beats, charming back-and-forths between vocalists Joey Duffy and Brianna Wright, and sultry horn tones satisfy the desire for some easy listening. A couple tracks later, “midnight mass” explores themes of devastating losses and dissipated relationships – as gutting to listen to as I’m sure it was to write. The unique beauty of CLIFFDIVER is how both of these tracks are about daily life and human relationships – the former highlighting squabbles between sports teams and the ever-elusive decision of what’s for dinner, while the latter bemoans the pitfalls of nostalgia and missing friends whom we’re admittedly better off without. Each of the 12 tracks on this album is its own world, its own private story to tell, and we’re given the privilege of being let in, if only for a few minutes apiece. This particular kind of sequencing and formulation on display makes me crave far more than 35 minutes in these worlds.
It’s not lightly or hyperbolically when I state that there are no bands doing it right now like CLIFFDIVER. The ninth track on the album, “would tho,” stands not only as my favorite track on an already spectacular collection of instant classics but as a testament to everything I love about this band. Seemingly possessed by a hardcore counterpart just one track earlier, "CLIFFDRIVER," sees the group take a page out of Pool Kids's book (or should I say POOL) by throwing down a one-minute hardcore track that acts as an exhilarating mid-album burst of energy. “would tho” continues this catharsis with a danceable rhythm and spacy synth notes ornamenting this infectious hardcore punk jaunt, delivering one of my favorite songs of the year. The feature by Stoph Colasanto of Carpool in the track “goin for the garbage plate” only serves to elevate this album into the greats of 2024 and flaunts how impressive this year has been for the punk scene. Carpool delivered their own essential punk offering, My Life In Subtitles, just a few months earlier, and their inclusion here only proves that birds of a feather do indeed flock together.
I think the knee-jerk reaction when you’re dissatisfied with your life is to torture yourself with what you could have done differently. Instead of dealing with the problem at hand, it’s easier to beat yourself up and pinpoint the exact moment where you fucked everything up. And when the sulking and self-pitying recedes, there’s the allure of nostalgia and uncomplicated escapism to satiate you for a while. The final track on birdwatching, “i reckon you might could i s’pose,” acts not only as a closing thesis statement for the record but a snapshot of these difficult cycles of failure and self-soothing. As a generation trapped by overwhelming nostalgia in the face of unparalleled grief and disappointment, we’re mesmerized by the idea of an alternate universe where these tragedies never happened. The melancholic guitar trills into triumphant brass and chanting gang vocals evoke mixed emotions and open the finale up to interpretation – is this the acceptance of defeat, or is it a rallying cry?
This latest album by CLIFFDIVER provides something the scene desperately needs now more than ever – brutal honesty. Crisp production, signature vocals, and uncompromising instrumental performances engross from track to track. Joey and Bri continue to complement each other with their unique and unmistakable styles, which are as arresting as their lyrics. Musical prowess and impressive instrumentation are definitely enough to carry a solid record, but the feelings – the raw, unfiltered admissions behind birdwatching – are what make it a truly special experience. Flawless sequencing, just the right balance of songs to mourn to and songs to get into fist-fights to, CLIFFDIVER continues to elevate my hopes for the future of diverse, complex music that always has something important to say.
Ciara Rhiannon (she/her) is a pathological music lover writing out of a nebulous location somewhere in the Pacific Northwest within close proximity of her two cats. She consistently appears on most socials as @rhiannon_comma, and you can read more of her musical musings over at rhiannoncomma.substack.com.
