Total Slacker - Parallels (2016)

Brooklyn shoegazers Total Slacker have consistently written songs held together by little more than gluesticks and twine — delightfully mellow garage pop with a DIY scruff that betrayed carefully considered songwriting. But on the band’s lead single for their upcoming third studio album Parallels, the follow-up to 2014’s Slip Away, they’ve never before sounded so tightly composed. With a longing bassline and cascading guitar riff backing vocalist Tucker Rountree’s SoCal-by-way-of-Brooklyn affectation (though he’s actually from Utah), “Turn On The Lights” sounds like what Blink-182 would write if they’d grown up on Slowdive rather than the Descendents. “It’s dark in your eyes tonight/ I’ve got to see through,” Tucker commands, before pleading “Don’t turn away.” It’s exhausting to chase after the dissipating spirit of someone you love, but it’s more difficult to accept that you aren’t losing them, they’re leaving you. “Turn On The Lights” is the desperate call to come home before the one you are calling disconnects their voicemail. Some insight from Rountree:
In “Turn On The Lights,” I was working with writing in contrast. The lyrics are about introspection and searching for a deeper meaning with someone you love.