Nostalgia. My mind travels backwards and looks into the past through a weathered photo and old home video filter. Or well, at least, it feels that I am traveling there. Everything feels a happy yellow when I listen to Villa Coola’s ok bye EP, and that is more than fine. We could all use another something to evoke happy reflections.
Ironically, the lyrics aren’t so happy. They seem to deal with longing for a past happiness and coping with a break-up. But what’s most important when experiencing music? I would argue it’s the feel. And this has it.
Gainy falsetto vocals in layers and garage-pop indie guitar progressions evoke a happy-go-lucky attitude. The drums lock in the tracks’ floating simplicity in “Green” while “Joon” and “Wester” mellow out the EP and bring it to a swimming and haunting close.
The vocalist concludes the EP like a remorseful phantom with a ghostly keyboard, trying to both accept and escape the past and simultaneously build a future: “I’ve loved you for so damn long \ now all of the good shit’s gone \ but I’ll still take the bad just please come back”. We can all relate. We’ve all had remorseful yet happy reflections that meander through bad times and leave us longing for more. As for me, I will be looking forward to Villa Coola’s next release as I enjoy their present one now.