balaclava weather - year of trophies single review
- Kaylah Chilcott
- May 20
- 3 min read
BALACLAVA WEATHER have dropped ‘YEAR OF TROPHIES’ as the new single from their upcoming album, NEW AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC.
based just south of sydney, This is the band's first single following their 2020 self-titled release and the alternative electro-pop duo have stepped it up.
Where you might find some electro-pop bands might have high energy and punchy sounds, BALACLAVA WEATHER tends to lean towards the low-key end. Their previous album is quite glittery with their use of synths and Tyler’s use of harsh vocals build a punk edge into Emma’s sickly sweet pitch. Their vocals harmonise and compliment each other well, fulfilling different aspects of their sound. The band has a way of keeping the music very chill, and even when it is upbeat they still make it sound solemn. 'MOONS' stuck out in particular, appealing to that gloomy side we have in us all.
One of the things the band does that I LOVE is that they’re committed to do-it-yourself and are entirely independent. We love independent music! All their film, music and artwork for their previous releases and music videos are created in-house.
Everyone loves a new year, a fresh start, and ‘YEAR OF TROPHIES’ is just that. How our achievements and memories of the past years will fade, or that the trophies we worked so hard to win will sit on our shelves and slowly tarnish. “Every “New Year” will be a year from today.” Every day could be a new year if you want it to be, so don’t stress about time and the past, and seize what you want now.
‘YEAR OF TROPHIES’ still captures the duo’s signature sound, opening with pushed back humming, heavily saturated with high and low EQ passes to give it a radio-like quality. When Tyler starts the first verse, he pushes his range to the rawer side, and there’s a grit to his vocals which sweeps you into emotion and feeling.
Emma gets her spotlight for the second verse, but she isn’t as sweet as their previous record. She takes a lower tone, but there is still a prominent air of fragility and vulnerability. You can really hear the development of her voice and it provides a lot of richness. Throughout the song, where Tyler may bolster some phrases, she tends to provide that extra tone of emotion. I thought the lyrical choices were great too - the pacing really had me hooked on the sound off the bat. They really know when to move the song to the next word, but also how to hang onto every syllable to keep it engaging.
They have maintained a brilliant consistency in sound from their previous record. Where some artists may have very prominent chorus’, I find BALACLAVA WEATHER takes a more subtle stance. Previous releases and ‘YEAR OF TROPHIES’ are very smooth, water-like transitions between chorus and verse, with gradual increases in depth of layers for each. I found myself getting lost in a soundscape of stars and serenity, usually getting dragged back by Tyler’s harsher vocals.
Across the bridge, they introduce a third vocalist who brings in a punchy hip hop element we haven’t seen from them before. I wasn’t really expecting it, but it brought in some vocal dynamics that I think really helped emphasize the existing vocals of the duo while taking a step away from what you would expect from a BALACLAVA WEATHER release.
It isn’t as instrumentally diverse as their previous release, sticking to a few chosen synths and beats, which I think worked in conjunction with their introduction of a different vocalist. It meant that the song wasn’t incredibly overwhelming or trying to take anything too far. However, the band has hinted we should expect more grit to appear on their next album!
I won’t lie, I do think they missed an opportunity to drop this album on June 1st, five years to the day they released their self-titled album, but I wait with anticipation nonetheless!
To hear when they’ll be releasing NEW AUSTRALIAN GOTHIC, find BALACLAVA WEATHER on their socials below!
