Not Up to Much By Spearside: Review

by Gabe Finch March 22, 2023

March 22, 2023

Spearside begins their third single, “Not Up to Much,” among the trilogy, “Bus Stop” and “Crack in Your Brain,” wth arpeggiated chord progression leading to an aggressive sound signaling that frustration’s around the corner.

As is the case with most music nowadays, the more upbeat the strings, the sadder the lyrics, or in the vocalist’s words: ‘When the musical backdrop is major key and up-beat, it can offer some extra license to explore darker lyrics without the song feeling too laborious.”

The garage rock sound is apparent from the first peek to the verses as Walsh sings, “Straying from the pavement I’m alone in my head/ Thinking about the people I know that are already dead/ I guess I’m right out on the edge again/ Looking for a means to an end.” And the Nihilism is apparent from the last lyric for all the character in the music is doing, is do anything to get to the end of everything, as though there’s no other purpose in life.

Not Up to Much is an exemplary case of the 90s power pop, punk rock and indies sound with their fuzzy distortion blurring the musical details, making a comeback and sticking to our feed for good. The distortion actually makes the music seem less rock– a positive sign– for more complacent tastes and gives the song an echoing ambiance. The dirty riffs though, conveys to us the level of frustration the lyrics fail to infer and that brings an abrasive edge to the song.