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Photo by Attiken Vega

San Diego rock band, benches, has released their latest EP, Kill The Lights, a six song exploration in mental health – fear, detachment, the illumination of reflection. Coming off of a tour with Inhaler into their own headline tour, benches are full-steam ahead, and Kill The Lights is an intoxicating dose of fuel for their fire. 

Kill The Lights is the perfect marriage of grit and pristine, with grimy drum sounds tailored to perfection, landing benches at the prime of today’s indie rock. 

The EP unfolds with “Departure,” an instrumental intro setting the project’s cinematic tone. Synths swirl over an enigmatic bass line, while resounding piano chords descend under warped strings. The song crescendoes into a reckless peak, leading us into “Naive,” and suddenly we’re in a basement house show by the beach. Garage drums, crunchy tones, and the slightest radio filter on the vocals have the 2010s indie rock scene on its knees. benches’ has perfected the drive of a relentless drum groove, and it’s hard not to get lost in the ear worm chorus, though there’s a darkness clinging to the catchiness of “Naive,” with haunting layers of background vocals and guitar reverberating across the soundscape. 

A catharsis takes shape as a theme of Kill The Lights, persisting in spite of the lack of resolution from the yearning vocals. The EP’s title track, “Kill The Lights” embodies the project’s sonic and emotional depth of exploration. benches’ adopt a simultaneously lonely and perseverant tone, craving warmth yet accepting of cold. The track is built off of an anthemic guitar arpeggio, rounded out by a high synth drone and guttural bass. The melodrama cuts to Car Seat Headrest-type nostalgia-core as the drums ensue. 

“Ochid” is a sweet dose of ear candy, twisting clipped synths in the foreground of distant background vocals and woody percussion. The song itself is a meditation of contrast, searching for light in the dark, while being the light in the dark all the while: “Where were the violets? / where were the blues? / where was the sunlight, to shine on through? / There in the silence / I was the fuse…” Meanwhile “Reach” quite literally reaches, searching for meaning in cyclical, twinkling sounds. 

Kill The Lights ends with “Here Come The Bitter Tears,” an expansive finale to this work of indie rock therapy. The sonic palette has been blissfully cohesive across the record, and we come full circle on “Here Come the Bitter Tears,” getting to settle in with the driving synths and guitar tones we’ve danced alongside in previous tracks. Now, we hear them each in turn, as the end of the movie, credits-rolling anthem plays out. The vocals have room to breathe, room for reflection.

Universal, yet grippingly personal, Kill The Lights is both a work of uncharted emotional and sonic territory for benches. Stream the EP now for your newest classic: