It’s not everyday you get an unbridled energy of rock and the kind of lyrical depth that makes you stop and listen. And somehow, The Second Summer manages to make the two feel inseparable in their latest single, Underwater.
Perhaps it’s because the Chicago-based band has such a firm grasp on ’90s college rock and sharpened it with a modern power pop edge. With their live presence making increasingly bigger waves, they have taken that momentum further with this latest release.
The track starts with the kind of live-in atmosphere you’d expect from a slice-of-life film. It’s easygoing and light, like a night spent at a neighborhood bar, with conversations running long and the hours slipping by unnoticed. But then the lyrics come and it reveals all the heavy, restless thoughts that get beneath your defenses.
It’s particularly compelling how they reward listeners with a richer, more vulnerable side of the song for taking the time to lean in. They don’t lay everything bare from the start, they let the lyrics slowly piece together a portrait of someone struggling to silence their thoughts and make sense of their own unraveling.
For all its noise and bite, Underwater makes a pretty good case for rock music that isn’t afraid to wear its vulnerabilities on its sleeve.
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