Imaginary Friends are the pinnacle of Alternative/Rock. They give listeners a sound to appreciate and embed such important messages within their sound that not only give listeners a moment to reflect on their own life experiences, but also give listeners a new perspective to many life topics. We're impressed with the amount of vulnerability presented with Imaginary Friends album, and they ultimately gained a surplus of fans after we listened to the album in its entirety here at BuzzMusic!
We'll get right into the riveting, and almost informative tracks present on the band's album.
Imaginary Friends starts off this album with "Lucid Uncertainty". It's a track that encompasses the very struggles about being content with one's self, and ultimately striving for self-happiness. The striking guitar riffs and aggressive drum appearance give the track it's soul and energy. The vocalism blends in with that hard-hitting production and successfully imparts that feeling one feels when trying to find an equilibrium within their own life. "Lucid Uncertainty" maintains a vibe independent of its message, which brings about that balanced contrast between tone and meaning. The mental battle one has to overcome with loving themself again is strongly outlined throughout "Lucid Uncertainty" and it makes for a more impactful experience as a listener.
"Boolin" is the next track we're introduced to, which embeds political elements within its message. First, we must talk about its production and collection of rhythms that create the laxest vibe. It's the exact kind of tune you want to hear on a predominant alternative/rock track, with an interesting twist added in with the elemental synths blended within. With newer generations coming to express their own opinions within the political world present today, Imaginary Friends express their ideologies on how such new generations aren't taken seriously with their input. Speaking on the corruptness of politicians and the irony presented within their reasoning for silencing newer generations, "Boolin" can be fastly understood as the political hallmark from this particular album by Imaginary Friends. The writhing melody throughout the track also makes for an intriguing experience, and ultimately we were left feeling with a fresh perspective and buzzing atmosphere.
This buzzing feeling continues with Imaginary Friends next track "Reckless Behaviour". A heavy pattern within the tracks by Imaginary Friends is that bustling guitar presence, which sets the overall tone for the album. Within "Reckless Behaviour" these guitar elements are continuous and radiant throughout the entirety of the track, maintaining a great personality for the song itself. Imaginary Friends touch on the difficulties in coping with mental disorders, and the actions that result from various coping mechanisms. It's a refreshing perspective from the band, and they execute such a perspective in a way that is both catchy, yet purposeful and relevant.
If you thought Imaginary Friends were done with trying to instill important values within their listeners, you were wrong! They don't stop with this aspect of their music, and you can expect to see such impressionable ideals throughout this album. "Whatever" is the next track doing exactly this, and Imaginary Friends now use their music with this particular track to allow listeners to understand the lethargy and indifference one faces towards their own mental disorders. It's raw and will undoubtedly make your perspective widen. The programming in this track stands out---it's authentic in all forms and we find it to be an incredibly honest track, exhibiting the most vulnerable parts of one's emotions.
The same type of energy is kept for "Novocain Commodities" in terms of expressing vulnerable and personal emotions. Imaginary Friends touch on the challenges in weighing out a relationship and its flaws (a feeling we already know many of us have encountered). "Novocain Commodities" is honestly an incredibly rejuvenating track in all senses. The melody, it's a sensation, and it's the message. The title has its own sense of irony, in the sense that relationships can be similar to the effects of Novocain, as Imaginary Friends sings "you are my Novocain, you make me feel so numb, it's just so pleasant baby, I just can't get enough [...] you are a dagger baby, you cut me up so good [..] you are a bullet racing through my chest". The contrast between the feelings one is bombarded with in terms of a relationship is incredibly reflective throughout this track, and this was the track that really stood out to us on this album. Explaining the feeling of a toxic relationship in the most complementing way, Imaginary Friends affirm listeners understanding of the true grasp of a harmful relationship.
"Hellbent" is the next sounding we're encountering on this Imaginary Friends album. Exasperated, fun, and booming are the feelings you'll be introduced to within this track. With a painful message, "Hellbent" expresses itself in a heavy-hitting way. This Imaginary Friends track had our feet tapping along with the beat, and our head bobbing to the finalized rhythm. It's fast and chronically hardcore. "Hellbent" gets your blood pumping for sure!
We come to the seventh track on Imaginary Friends 10-track album: "Responsibilities". Compared to "Hellbent", this track is a little more relaxed and introduces a new sort of vibe from Imaginary Friends. We get that collection of funky synths again, and it creates an evolutionary sound for Imaginary Friends. We love the elements of this particular track because it's so divergent from the usual sound we can expect to hear from the band. Although it has more of that loose tune, don't underestimate the bands' ability to intertwine that with a brisk execution. "Responsibilities", as the title suggests, explains the burden of obligations. Many can relate, especially when that burden is combined with other life hardships, and Imaginary Friends does their best to communicate that exact emotion across their sound. "Trinity" is similar in the way that it's more laid-back than the rest of the tracks on the album, and it introduces more of a lenient side of the band. "Trinity" brings us back into the life of Imaginary Friend's vocalist, and the grief presents earlier in his life. Again, listeners can expect to see that organic aspect of Imaginary Friends music--all experiences coming from their personal lives, without any fabrication or deceit.
As we head near the end of the album, "Bloody Knuckles" is the track we hear next. We're brought back to that high-energy sound we were first introduced to within this album, and it's at this point we realize how in tune we are with their aggressive production approach, blended with more of a gentle vocalism. "Bloody Knuckles" is the epitome of failing to reach certain expectations within a relationship, and the overall indignation that arises from that. More of a gritty sounding in "Bloody Knuckles", Imaginary Friends play with different soundings that end up complementing their overall sound. And this complementation of playing with sounds presents itself again within their latest track off of this album, "Lately". With a contentious appeal towards toxic relationships, Imaginary Friends play devil's advocate with proposing to work out such virulent relationships. Within their proposition, the band collectively introduces the concept of sticking relationships out within their worst stage and attempting to enjoy the indifference, leading to mending such chaotic behavior (the sounding too is absolutely killer with this track).
All in all, Imaginary Friends don't hold back on implementing their intrinsic values and life experiences, which we're completely here for! Listening to their experiences and motives is riveting, and it was enjoyable to not only receive that killer alternative/rock track and melody but to receive a meaningful input on issues many faces on the daily. Issues that are personal to many individuals, and that aren't spoken about often. Imaginary Friends surpassed our expectations with this album, and this band is hot on our radar for upcoming music. The band blends well together in terms of sound, meaning, and consummation of their music. Imaginary Friends are not the kind of band one forgets once listening to, and we highly recommend our alternative/rock BuzzMusic listeners to check out their most recent album below! Give a listen to Imaginary Friends album here.
Hey Imaginary Friends! What a treat to be able to feature your latest album here on BuzzMusic! How did the creation of this album come about? Were there are creative differences during the curative and/or recording process?
Hey! It’s an awesome opportunity to be getting featured. The album came about basically as a couple of high school kids using music as a creative outlet. We dropped an EP back in 2014 or so and it was a couple of kids trying to be rockstars. It was a lot of us (mostly our singer) trying to be something we’re not. We were trying way too hard to be edgy and gritty-as opposed to letting it come naturally. From there, we kept that in mind and promised ourselves to be 100% genuine and as a result, our sound totally changed. The album came about through making songs as ways to voice certain ideas, opinions, and such about numerous different topics. This is part of the reason why the album has songs that venture through so many different genres. There were a couple of minor creative differences in the process of making the songs and recording them. Devin (our drummer) and Michael (our singer) worked mostly in the recording process, but we're both super honest-and if their ideas didn’t work out, or weren’t as good as a different idea, they would respond honestly and choose what’s best for the song. Not to mention, Miles Hall, the guy who recorded us, went above and beyond and essentially acted as a producer and gave some awesome suggestions. By the end of the recording process, the band was down to two official members, so it did leave less room for arguments due to less butting heads.
What a collection of impressionable experiences and perspectives within this album! It was amazing to listen to this album in its entirety and be able to resonate with a lot of messages brought up on the band's end. What track would you guys say was the most impactful to the band?
The cool thing about making these songs as we grew up, is that you can really dive into the mindset of where you were back when you wrote the song. Each guy has a specific song they love above the rest, for various reasons. Devin, our drummer, loves Novocain Commodity because it really elevated our songwriting and broke us out of the standard of a stereotypical rhyme scheme and song structure. Novocain Commodity essentially pushed us into our own sound. Our bassist, Leonard, and our pianist/cellist, Omar, particularly love Lately. (Michael, our singer, loves it as well.) Leonard loves Lately because it’s catchy and melancholy at the same time, while providing something that a lot of people can relate to in the avoidance of conflict or the bittersweet end of a relationship. Omar likes Lately because it’s conciseness and clarity-visibly upgrading past sounds/songwriting, marking a new era of musicality of the band. Michael, our singer, particularly loves the song Bloody Knuckles. The raw emotion behind the lyrics and harsh delivery delivers our thoughts exactly how they felt inside of our heads. Not to mention, it provides a change of pace on the album and reminds Michael of some of his early 2000’s influences he grew up listening to.
As we listened throughout the album, it became evident that there were many personal and private emotions shared with your listeners. Was it hard to express such vulnerable emotions within this particular album, or does that part of your music come easy to the band?
As kids, we grew up together, so we were used to being open and honest, to a painful degree, at times. It took a little bit, but we all learned to be open with each other and didn’t necessarily feel like we couldn’t talk about certain things with each other. The public’s perception is another thing entirely, but we have all learned to adopt the mindset that people will relate to these songs; these songs can help people; these songs can make people smile. This means any scared or anxious feelings got washed away. We also all grew up as musical theatre kids, so we were never particularly afraid to put ourselves out there.
As we know, the band does comment on political elements throughout "Boolin". As a band, are you collectively comfortable with commenting on political topics, and do you see yourself incorporating more of this perspective into future tracks?
As a band, we just find being genuine crucial. Our opinions are exactly that, our opinions. Everybody in the band has an “agree to disagree” ideology when it comes to controversial topics. We have opinions and aren’t afraid to let them be known, but we don’t want to stomp on anybody else’s. As far as whether or not we will be incorporating our perspectives in the future is unknown. For Boolin, we didn’t start with the idea to write a song about our political perspectives; it just kind of happened. When you have stuff on your mind, it tends to show. I feel like at some point, it’s bound to happen again, but it isn’t something we aim to write about.
What a great experience it was to listen to your album in full, and be able to talk with you guys on it! Now that this album is out, what direction are Imaginary Friends going now?!
We are getting back to writing and trying to do more live shows. We are also trying to get our names out there so we have more friends to share our music with. We would all absolutely love to tour. We are all also in agreement that we would love to do this for a living as long as we can, so we are just trying to improve constantly and make more music!