FLOWER - HARDLY A DREAM

flower hailing from new york city and playing a meaningful anarcho punk in a way that really stands alone - maybe you can call it newschool anarcho punk or what? founded in 2017, they’re deeply influenced by sacrilege and anti-sect and nausea, but they put their very own stamp onto “hardly a dream,” their debut lp released in 2023 on fiddlehead records.

from the moment the needle drops, a dark atmosphere creeps in with arpeggio guitar work that builds into pummeling d-beat crust - a bleak journey through the dark side of society right from the start. the vocals hit like a weight:

the ever-present crush of late stage capitalism, the lies of the american dream, religious hypocrisy, nationalism, greed. this is caustic, crusty, meaningful punk.

nine songs that don’t offer solutions or hope, just document what it’s like when everything around you is crumbling. the music matches:

fast, aggressive, but never overproduced or polished.

later on, “my heart” deals with relationships in a way that’s refreshingly unsentimental: love as something fragile and temporary, held together by will rather than fate. the narrator knows it might end tomorrow but decides to keep going anyway, which is probably the most punk attitude toward romance you can have.

favorite track: american alms