EP REVIEW: Bad Bad Luck – Wilder.

Disillusioned by the church they grew up in, southern Californian duo Nick Sturz and Stephen Ramos knew it was time for a change. With their previous project – Christian rock outfit HEARTS LIKE LIONS – fading before their eyes as members traded chasing a dream for chasing a paycheque, they brought WILDER. to life. 

Sinking ten years of your blood, sweat, and tears into something, only to knock it down and start from scratch is a brave thing to do in any walk of life. In the music industry, it’s a fine line between climbing to the top and career suicide. In WILDER.‘s case though, it’s a move that’s paid off in dividends. 

Their debut EP, Bad Bad Luck, is less a rebirth as much as it’s a reinvention. Plucking their musical apples from the same gardens as CAGE THE ELEPHANT, FIDLAR, and THE MAINE; the duo deal in dishing up an indie-infused, garage rock-steamed, emo-pop pie. 

Having spent the best part of a decade touring clubs, it’s clear across Bad Bad Luck that WILDER. have their sights set on something bigger. Bitemytongue is built on a fuzzed-up festival-sized riff fit to burst; which it eventually does, washing over you with a chorus to keep Reading & Leeds-punters chanting back every word. It seems like this time round the duo won’t settle for small shows with a sound made for big crowds.

They’re not one trick ponies though. Oh No soaks itself in SoCal sun, spritzing your eardrums in kaleidoscopic guitar lines and good vibes, and resting somewhere between Almost Free-era FIDLAR and IMAGINE DRAGONS. Elsewhere, Hang Up is a slow-burn salute to campfire sunsets that carries a woah-oh chant that could quite easily still get college radio airplay in the same way THE HEAD & THE HEART or THE STRUMBELLAS would drum up.

Lyrically, they fall largely into the same category of life lessons that the aforementioned artists build their festival-conquering songs with. They mix their successes and their failures in life with their experiences of church and religion, and being on both sides of that coin. It’s a feeling they’ve likened to real life. 

Whilst the messages are in there somewhere, it’s largely written for shouting out in crowds, as opener See Through screams “I see a little bit clearer now/But you don’t know how/You don’t know how.” Once you’ve made it through the record, you realise it’s one big flash flood of these easy-to-learn lyrics. It adds a shallow shadow to songs that could really make a difference for others growing up in similar situations.

It’s clear they’ve shifted gears from their proggy post-hardcore roots, but that’s not without a cost. The good news is there’s not a single bad song on Bad Bad Luck. The bad news is that you’ve likely heard every song on it a dozen different times in the last decade. The more you dive in to the five tracks, the more familiar it all feels, and the question has to be raised – is it enough to be very good at a scene that’s largely been and gone?

Rating: 7/10

Bad Bad Luck is set for release on August 27th via Rude Records.

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