With the collapse of the time-space continuum that was the covid-19 pandemic, it's hard to imagine it's been almost 4 years since the release of Raleigh quartet Truth Club's debut album Not An Exit. Since discovering them at my first ever Hopscotch Music Festival back in 2017, a highlight of each return trip was the chance to see Truth Club since heretofore they hadn't really been a touring band. And yet, despite the fact that up until 2019, I'd have one or two performances a year to tide me over, there songs remained so distinctly memorable that I never really lost any enthusiasm for them. Going on tour with Wednesday last year, the band unveiled a series of new song clearly prepped for a follow up to their 2019 debut. "It's Time" is one such song and it's a scorcher - building a solid base of driving drums and angular guitars before Travis Harrington's vocals enter.
One of Truth Club's many strengths is the interconnectedness of its members and the song spends a good portion of time setting that up before. While lyricism in Truth Club's songs are always at the forefront and certain phrases end up being incredibly memorable - I've personally found them both obfuscated and illuminating. It's an interesting dichotomy. Harrington's lyrically very open and yet, plays with cadence and vocabulary in a way that has you second guessing.
"I watch this one last busy week crestfall and dissolve the intentions you set and I will watch it happen again" is a lyric that shouldn't have nearly enough interpretations as it could and yet, it reveals a surprising amount of information for an opening lyrics. Essentially describing detached inaction that Harrington elevates to a gripping level of drama. "It's Time" is a descent - or more accurately, an re-enactment of a descent - as Harrington details shifting feelings that gradually metamorphose into something seismic. "When alone I'm afraid I will never find a way to pry joy from strain, joy is strain, joy is strange" Harrington announces at the song's climax. It's a major pronouncement - the feeling when you're at a low point that you can't see the way back up. Thankfully, the song ends on a somewhat hopeful if not productive note: to just keep working at it.Truth Club lyrics have a tendency to be self-referential - either to their NC environs or the member themselves (see: "Not An Exit"/"Tethering") and Harrington does so here - "It's a show of faith, always running, but in Yve's groove, she moves, she dreams up new ways to exhaust herself", Harrington delivers amidst a wash of dissonance with a sort of optimistic uncertainty.
Truth Club's newest single "It's Time" is out now.
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