Album Review :: Pass Away :: Hey Death

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Pass Away :: Hey Death :: Black Numbers

So I knew before I even pushed play that I was at least going to be into this album, at least, a little bit. With band members from I Am The Avalanche, Crime in Stereo, The Marine Electric, I was pretty confident that this was not going to assault my ears. I like it when I am not wrong. This 7” feels like a complete album. The songs progress, transform, and give you a full experience.

On first listen you think to yourself, these songs have a rather upbeat tempo for a 7” titled Hey Death from a band called Pass Away. Quick Fix is super upbeat pop punk that will get the pit into a frenzy, you know just having fun instead of beating the shit out of one another. Currituck Sound is my favorite track on the album, and one of my favorites of 2015 so far. It is still catchy, but it has a raspy chill sound with underlying menace. Monster is flat out catchy as fuck, though it has a serious grounding bass line. The Blue Hour is a great fast punk track that will have you moving. Comatose, is a bit indie, a bit rock, and bit alterative– all fucking awesome. The last track, Fuck Outta Here is catchy, fun free-for-all. If this 7” was a set, it would be one killer set.

It isn’t until you really listen, take note of all the lyrics, when the darkness begins to ooze out. It flows out in beer is drowned in water. Lines like Quick Fix  sets us up, “Maybe a shot and a cigarette / maybe a cold beer and I’ll be set” Currituck Sound pushes us deeper into that oblivion, “old nights freeze into days / I lost my heart in a drunken haze.” The Blue Hour is rock bottom, “the grey of the morning compels me / to blind myself from all that I see. / Smash my face into the concrete / Have the police come arrest me.” The most poignant lyrics, for me at least, are in Fuck Outta Here, “September fades into October every year / and I’m bumming out everyone, I wanna disappear / Wash me away in the pouring rain / Dump me out anywhere I won’t complain.” I think that we have all been a bit alienated, even if it was just for a short time. And maybe I just dealt with it in a similar way, “Flat on my face in the van / So fucking hungover I don’t understand / Can’t stop throwing up.” If you replaced van with “shitty NYC apartment” I can relate precisely. But what is great about this last track, is that it is the end of it all…let’s get the fuck out….it can only go up.

I loved this 7” more and more on every listen, so I am not even going to write about this anymore, it’s so good, go listen to it for yourself.