There’s something wonderfully stupid about the insult “poser” when you really think about it. It is basically someone saying “You are pretending to be the thing you want to become” as though everyone who has ever tried to reinvent themselves simply woke up one morning already finished. BLØSMM’s “Poser” takes that accusation and turns it into ammunition.
The debut single from Phoenix-based duo Jordan White and Brian Dellis arrives and it sounds less like a gentle introduction to a new project than two musicians kicking down the door to their next chapter. Built around crushing guitars, cinematic production, thumping drums and industrial-tinged textures, the song immediately establishes a world where self-doubt is apparently something you defeat by turning your amplifier up.
The track opens with punchy melodies and grinding guitar work before White’s voice enters, carrying the kind of grainy, wounded intensity that makes the whole thing feel considerably more personal than your average modern-rock anthem. Her vocals move from restrained frustration into soaring falsetto, creating the impression of someone slowly losing their grip and then deciding, actually, maybe losing their grip is preferable to continuing to live according to everyone else’s expectations.
And this is where “Poser” becomes more interesting than its title initially suggests. The song is about identity erosion, ego, failure and reaching the point where you have very little left to protect. It’s got the same energy of anti-poser rhetoric as the Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” but with instrumentation that sounds like Massive Attack’s take on a Bring Me The Horizon song.
Musically, the song understands the value of contrast. The guitars are enormous, but the production leaves enough room for White’s vocal performance to actually hurt. The quieter moments create tension before the heavier passages crash back in, giving the song an arena-sized quality without reducing everything to an endless wall of noise.
Produced by Andy Gerold and Jim Louvau and mixed by Sean Beavan, “Poser” has the glossy weight of contemporary hard rock while retaining enough emotional messiness to feel human. You can hear echoes of the modern heaviness associated with bands such as Spiritbox, Bring Me The Horizon and Bad Omens, but BLØSMM’s real selling point is the conflict underneath the production.
As the opening chapter of the upcoming concept album Archer and Ego, the song introduces a larger question: what happens when the person everyone expects you to be stops matching the person you actually want to become?
“Poser” doesn’t pretend to have an easy answer. It just picks up the broken pieces, plugs in the guitar, and keeps going. Honestly, that’s probably the better answer anyway.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
