The whole world is getting closer…fused together…
..things that never existed together are now coexisting like never before…
…culture and art are creating common grounds between various elements and different backgrounds…it’s uniting people…and with Hollow River’s latest EP “Back Bay Dropout”, music is that common ground between many different musical styles…all with a twist of punk.
Pop, punk and rap….Hollow River, a rising star from the Boston and Toronto areas is bringing all of these musical elements together, and that means something…something bigger than music and song…
By fusing together different musical elements, it means that the different audiences are also fused together, brought together, united…which is something that in my book transcends art.
Hollow River released “Back Bay Dropout” on April the 19th 2023.
It was written during Hollow River’s last semester at Berklee College of Music…which is a testament on how much talent Hollow River already has.
When you listen to “Back Bay Dropout” you’ll hear the punchiness of Linkin Park, the flow of Eminem, the tongue in cheek punk humor of barenaked ladies…and many more…that’s why I can’t stress enough on how important this EP is, especially at this time.
“Back Bay Dropout” has 4 songs…
Starting with the first song “Aspartame”…it starts with like an indie ukulele based rap song…which is already an amazing job of uniting all of these musical genres together in one musical creation…only to kick into high gear when it reaches the chorus and going full punk rock.
…moving to the second song “The Way I Want To”…
…Hollow River starts it out with a punk guitar riff right away…followed by a punk drum break and into a full punk mood…but he’s rapping….it’s like nothing you’ve heard before…
….into the second half of the song…it gets into an ambient pop punk mood, again, so fresh.
…jumping into the third track “I’ll Break Them Down”…
By now, it’s obvious that Hollow River is focusing on punk as his weapon of choice for the music and for this time around he tones down the rapping and gets into a more punk/pop vocal performance.
This one is an instant classic punk song.
…and before too long, we find ourselves going into the fourth and last song of the EP “Ignite”, and boy…it’s on fire.
When you listen to it you could almost swear that the rapping flow is on par with Eminem…the flow is brilliant, the music is punk, but with more melodic rock innuendos to it.
This song is like a magnum opus…anthemic, progressive-in a sense, lyrical and extremely melodic…
It’s the kind of song you’d experience in a jam packed stadium and have all the audience sing to it while getting emotional…
I hope to see Hollow River filling a stadium like that, it would be a special experience.
Hollow River’s “Back Bay Dropout” is a fresh take on punk and a fresh genre-bending experience for….basically any music lover, and definitely any punk fan out there.
The EP is 16 minutes long, which is basically a concentrated pill of punk, rap and pop…a pill you’ll swallow easily and will definitely boost your mood for the day. Highly recommended.
Hollow River, we wish you all the best in the world, you deserve it…and a little more.
Cheers!
