Zoe Roarz doesn’t seem interested in asking permission to make a racket, and thank goodness for that. The Kansas City-born, Los Angeles-area alt-rocker has built her sound around gritty guitars, head-banging grooves, and vocals that can switch from melodic cool to full-throated growls and howls. Her debut full-length album, What Are You Waiting for?, throws open the doors for the oddballs, outsiders and beautifully unruly souls who have never quite fitted in. It’s a noisy, irreverent invitation to embrace your weirdness, crank up the amps and let the world deal with it.
“Slam Dance Romance” gets things moving with grinding guitar and a grainy, high-register vocal that sounds almost conversational in its dry delivery. There’s even some background chatter, giving the track a loose, lived-in quality, as though we’ve stumbled into a private moment at a crowded party. Beneath the scruffy surface, though, there’s a sweet streak of defiance. Roarz sings about liking someone without giving a damn what other people think, and the sentiment feels perfectly suited to her punk-rock sensibility.
“Stuck Inside,” meanwhile, takes the album’s restless energy into much darker territory. Fuzzy, grinding guitars and driving drums create a claustrophobic backdrop for Roarz’s thick, grainy voice, which surges into the chorus with an almost possessed intensity. Drawing on imagery from The Shining, the song spirals through paranoia, isolation, twisted domestic scenes and the maze of an overworked mind. Its horror-movie references amplify the feeling of being trapped somewhere between psychological breakdown and grotesque absurdity. Roarz makes the chaos feel both unsettling and strangely exhilarating, turning cabin fever into a full-blown rock spectacle.
Across What Are You Waiting for?, rage, heartbreak, humour and high-voltage release sit comfortably alongside one another. With her signature guitar crunch and unapologetically offbeat personality, Roarz offers a welcome gathering place for anyone who has ever felt like the odd one out.
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Review by: Naomi Joan