Harrison Gordon – BLISS | Album Review
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Hopeless Records
Harrison Gordon (the band) nearly died on a California highway en route to Santa Cruz. The control arm of their van had been steadily grinding away at one of their tires, suddenly bringing the Normal, Illinois natives within inches of death. Writing purely in hypotheticals– Harrison Gordon (the man) does not appear to be all that deterred by the idea of dying a tragic, grotesque death. After all, monotonous transit rides often elicit passing thoughts about our own mortality: the way in which we’ll die, when it’ll happen, who will care when we’re gone, etc. After a recent brush with death of my own, I have often caught myself wondering what others would attempt to say about me at my funeral. It’s something I have wracked my brain over for the past year or so, to no avail.
It’s difficult to imagine that anyone would stand before my casket and wax poetic about how affable I was or how much I’d be missed. A similar perspective seems to be held by Harrison Gordon (the man), given that a majority of his lyrical content is “punching himself in the face” relentlessly. It’s sort of the crux of Harrison Gordon’s debut LP, The Yuppies are Winning, in which heinous rent and healthcare prices, hating yourself, and selling your childhood Wii for $30 are the overriding themes. Frankly, these are the band’s overriding themes, who, in classic Midwest emo fashion, built their wealth via DIY-nomics, with a little assistance from viral TikToks as well. Those self-loathing, politically charged lyrics are littered all throughout Yuppies. By the penultimate track, even Gordon himself has run out of ways to address the situation, resigning, “I want to stop talking about how much I hate myself, but I don't have anything else to say.”
After a string of self-released music, Harrison Gordon (the band) has found themselves as newcomers to Hopeless Records, delivering their sophomore album, BLISS. Mastered by Grammy Award-winning producer and scene legend Will Yip, the 11-track, 30-ish minute LP finds the band more abrasive in tone, both musically and in terms of their self-deprecating lyrics. Album single, “Like Me Less,” holds the flag for this as, four seconds in, Gordon admits, “I think I went up another waist size / Convinced you like me now a little less” before a barrage of cymbals and down-tuned strings. The music video for this track, co-directed by Hot Mulligan’s Tades Sanville, depicts Gordon hesitantly signing away his rights in order to receive botched-ass plastic surgery in hopes of improving his already distorted self-image. Undeniably a heavy-handed metaphor for Gordon’s desperate lack of self-confidence, but a funny and twisted video for a song track that will have sweaty basements piling on top of each other as they grab for the mic.
Characterized by severe reclusion and distress, BLISS wears its theatrics on its sleeve. Opening track, “Weirdo,” sees Gordon justifying his lack of reaching out: “No one thinks the way that you do / No one else has thoughts so sad / And it makes you a fucking weirdo / To talk about yourself like that.” Harrison Gordon is no stranger to commenting on twisted social norms, especially the lack of a shoulder to cry on when attempting to confess your insecurities. It’s a harrowing truth that is hard to swallow; no one really cares about what you’re going through because everyone else is a little worse off. Additional suck-it-ups can be found on “Not Working! Not Working!” where Gordon’s disdain for the feckless, middle manager office drone shines through.
Production-wise, BLISS evolves the gritty, raw imperfection found throughout the rest of the band's catalog. The downtuned, chunky bass hits listeners like a pit in your stomach after being delivered bad news. Such gut punches can be heard on “Pretty,” which sees the band leaning heavily into their influences. Hefty traces of PUP, Prince Daddy & The Hyena, and Jeff Rosenstock are chewed on from start to finish of the LP.
Photo by Chris Malchow
Gordon has a knack for ungrandiose and relatable lyrics that hit just as hard as any traditionally ornate poet. Take, for instance, “Discard the garbage that you didn’t want / Pick at your old friends like scabs / Don’t have to treat me like royalty / But you don’t have to treat me like that” from the aptly titled “Scab,” which details the messy aftermath of a fractured friendship. A couple of songs later, the blisteringly fast “Middle Name” flies by listeners before they have the opportunity to digest: “I’ve known you way too long / To ask you ‘bout your middle name or how / You always notice when I cry / Even if I haven’t cried in days.” Gordon pens lyrics like street photography: mundane but immensely meaningful when pondered.
If, in the five stages of grief, Yuppies served to represent depression, then BLISS surely depicts acceptance. Harrison Gordon’s first LP is littered with self-deprecating lyrics, fast guitars, and college regrets. Now, three years later, BLISS has all the same features; just drop-tuned some, crafted a bit more tightly, and with a narrator even more aware of his ineptitudes. The sophomore release also features Harrison Gordon as a full-band effort, whereas the first was essentially crafted as a solo venture, with Gordon tracking everything on his own.
It’s on the crowd-surf-ready closing title track, “Bliss,” where Gordon delivers the following lines like repeated jabs to the face:
I’ve learned happiness is something
You just have to strive for
Seems like such a chore
Bliss is good as I can get
Shallow as paper cuts
And hollowed out like bedsores
I want something more
But I don’t wanna chase it
As seen above, Harrison Gordon’s honest-to-the-point-of-hurting perspective truly is what separates this band from their scene counterparts. This group consistently finds ways to inject their own style into rote emo conventions, creating a refreshing take on the genre’s sound. As Harrison Gordon put it himself: “Not slow enough for shoegaze. Not mathy enough for Midwest emo. Not fast enough for hardcore. Not catchy enough for pop-punk. And not smart enough for indie rock. Just 100% Gordon.” BLISS is the band absolutely crushing the infamous second-LP glass ceiling; they didn't simply copy and paste the formula that found them success with Yuppies; they clearly mulled over these 11 new tracks and delivered album-of-the-year-esque material.
Maintaining a perpetual state of bliss sincerely eases the blow of the proximity of death. This is likely why Gordon so irreverently admitted that the band very nearly met their demise on the road. BLISS, as described by Harrison Gordon, is largely about the uncomplicated gratification of “pissing your life away” and the trepidation that comes with actually trying to get your shit together in a world that is consistently working against you. Gordon builds off of this sentiment: “I took stock of my life and realized it was passing me by.” The world as it stands is intended to beat the shit out of us until we’re too tired, anxious, and complacent to do anything about it. What BLISS appropriately conveys is that we’re not alone in destructively masking our modern anxieties. The question then becomes: what are you going to do about it?
Brandon Cortez is a coffee, football, and music nerd from Texas. He’s on Twitter @numetalrev.
