Riding high on passion, raw energy, and their own sweetly seductive indie rock sound, Edinburgh upstarts Fright Years embrace the end in “Blue,” a messy, sweaty breakup anthem ready to close the door on the past and make a fresh start.
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Stream: “Blue” – Fright Years
‘Blue’ is about swallowing your pride and embracing the end of a relationship. It was one of the first songs we wrote as a band and has closed our set ever since. It’s chaotic and messy.
Edinburgh’s Fright Years don’t just have a great band name; they also make great songs to match. Staying in a sour, loveless relationship just because it’s easier to keep the status quo than to make a change? Now that really would be a fright(ful) year – and on their latest single, the group unpack what it takes to finally make the first move and end things.
Because when you’re relationship is going nowhere, where does that leave you?
Riding high on passion, raw energy, and their own sweetly seductive indie rock sound, Fright Years embrace the end in “Blue,” a messy, sweaty breakup anthem ready to close the door on the past and make a fresh start.
I left on my lights for you
Now we don’t love outside my room
Leave me in the darkest blue
So I feel how you want me
We used to stand off just for fun
Then sink a few and drink ‘to love’
Now we toast to ‘that’s enough’
So someone’s got to shoot
Independently released today (March 27, 2024), “Blue” is Fright Years’ sixth single since debuting in 2021, and an incredibly upbeat and infectious approach to parting ways with someone you once loved. Rather than mope around in a state of sadness or nostalgia, the band advocate for making a clean break and calling it quits before you’re consumed by your own love’s stagnation. Vocalist Jules Kelly holds nothing back as together, she and bandmates Harrison MacLeod-Bonnar, Christopher Jamieson, and Struan Blacklock channel turbulent feelings into a radiant and almost revelrous eruption.
The song’s catchy, energetic chorus is an unassailable, uncompromising moment of all-consuming cathartic release. Blacklock’s drums work double-time and MacLeod-Bonnar’s feisty guitars swell and soar mightily as Kelly throws caution to the wind, calls it what it is, and becomes the change she wants to see in the world:
Cause you get smart like I do often
throw away another night
cause we’re not talking
I can’t help it over and over again
cause I won’t ask and you don’t offer
Now I’ve got the feeling
that it’s never gonna stop
but I can’t help it over and over again
“‘Blue’ is about swallowing your pride and embracing the end of a relationship,” the Fright Years frontwoman tells Atwood Magazine. “Specifically it’s about wanting to break out of poor cycles whilst also recognising your own part in creating them. But it’s meant to feel lighthearted, messy, and fun too; just as the outcome definitely isn’t the end of the world. It was one of the first songs we wrote as a band and has closed our set ever since.”
I sit talking for us both
and silently dress every hope
In disbelief but we both know
There’s nothing left to lose
Cause you get smart like I do often
throw away another night
cause we’re not talking
I can’t help it, over and over again
’cause I won’t ask and you don’t offer
Now I’ve got the feeling
that it’s never gonna stop
but I can’t help it over and over again
Breakups aren’t meant to be easy, but Fright Years remind us that they don’t have to turn you upside down and inside out, either.
You can mutually agree that “this sucks,” and a situation can be difficult and trying, without you losing your mind and your faith in the world (or in love) in the process! In short, “Blue” offers a refreshing alternative approach to how we deal with endings: With a smile, rather than a frown, an embrace rather than a denial. Because after every ending, especially one such as this, there is a new beginning just waiting to be discovered – another chapter in our story, full of promise and potential – and the only way we’re ever going to get there is by ripping off the bandage and diving headfirst into the unknown.
“Blue” is Fright Years’ second single of the year following “Evil,” which released this past January and saw the Scottish band rising from brooding depths to a stunning fever pitch as they delivered an achingly emotive and smoldering seduction of raw heat. “From cathartic highs to spiritually cleansing lows, and all the messy wonders in-between, Fright Years tug at the heart strings in a way we haven’t felt in a long, long time,” we wrote upon that song’s release. “Fine-tuned and raw all at once, ‘Evil’ is the unrelenting anthem we want soundtracking every day of our lives.”
Everything this band makes is golden, and their latest is another noteworthy notch in a musical belt full of winning numbers. Sweaty and soaring, “Blue” is bold, brash, and beautiful: A shimmering, summery eruption of dramatic indie rock and spirited power pop ready to uplift our heavy hearts and revive our ragged souls. Stream Fright Years’ inspiring breakup anthem, and call it quits today!
‘Cause you get smart like I do often
throw away another night cause we’re not talking
I can’t help it over and over again
cause I won’t ask and you don’t offer
Now I’ve got the feeling
that it’s never gonna stop but
I can’t help it over and over again
When I see you, I’m all blue…
I’m all blue
’cause I won’t ask and you don’t offer
Now I’ve got the feeling
that it’s never gonna stop
but I can’t help it, over and over again
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Stream: “Blue” – Fright Years
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© Rory Barnes
© Rory Barnes
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