Over the past few months, Sad Baxter has been hitting the promotions hard in support of their latest EP, So Happy. For a six track EP, they released extremely well produced and enjoyable videos for four songs – “Baby“, lead track “Love Yew“, “Sick-Outt” and “Believe Me.” On top of that, they released a live version of “Love Yew” and a cover of Nirvana’s “On a Plain.” We’ve talked about this.
So, after all that, how is the actual EP now that it’s been released? Is it possible that they exhausted all the “good” songs with all those videos and promotion? Surely, the remaining two tracks will just be filler, right? Wrong. The remaining two tracks – “Wash” and “Blow” – are both the most incendiary and the most explosive, respectively. “Wash” is downright manic with the captivating refrain “I don’t wanna go, you can’t make me” repeated over and over in a snarling outcry. It’s not a tantrum, it’s a line in the sand of ferocious refusal. “Blow” is a slower burn with more more emphasis on the build-and-release tactic.
Having spent months building anticipation for this release, the only disappointment is that there isn’t more of it. As a band they’ve clearly up’ed their game from their previous release, Weirdy and are capable of wrapping plenty of complicated emotions into a grunge pop song. Sad Baxter may be Sad but they should be recognized and congratulated for an album well made.