Puzzlecuts is “a constantly-songwriting hermit from Kalamazoo, MI”, an artist who crafts pop melodies and then builds on them with wordy lyrics and a great big helping of noisy indie rock. The result is something along the lines of heavyweights of the genre such as Pavement meets contemporary acts such as Hallelujah the Hills, Car Seat Headrest and Titus Andronicus.
Indeed, Titus Andronicus are the band that I kept coming back to when listening. Take for example the searing opener, ‘The End is a Vicious Thug’, with its raw and throaty vocals and bitter, cynical lyrics:
“The end is a vicious thug
lying cheat backstabbing scum
it’ll look you in the eye –
keep you on the run from the trouble behind
past the crows the yellow sky
and the awful things that they symbolize”
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The album continues in this vein, with impassioned vocals and crashing drums making for a really good time. Other standout tracks include the slacker rock love song ‘High’ (“I had the nerve to hold a flower out / You had the nerve to take it / Just keep sending smiles my way / I’ll be high for a lifetime”) and the chugging indie rock of ‘Cadence’, which has a potentially killer singalong chorus.
Like A Human Being is due for release on the 10th of March, but if you can’t wait that long then you can download it on a pay-what-you-want basis via the Puzzlecuts bandcamp page.
P.S. The album was written and recorded solo, but a full-band Puzzlecuts will be touring in the coming months. Keep your eyes peeled in case they play near you.