“montgomery forever,” the third single off of The Front Bottoms’ upcoming LP ‘Sickness & In Flames’, embraces what they do best: Anthemic nostalgia steeped in comfortingly familiar garage punk.
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Listen: “montgomery forever” – The Front Bottoms
Since 2011, New Jersey-based duo The Front Bottoms (Brian Sella and Mat Uychich) have been making music that resonates, and on August 21, 2020, they plan to release their fifth LP, In Sickness & In Flames. The album’s title may eerily match the state of the world in which we currently live, but its third single, “montgomery forever,” embraces what The Front Bottoms do best: anthemic nostalgia steeped in comfortingly familiar garage punk.
Beginning with an acoustic guitar lick and an infectious drum build, “montgomery forever,” showcases the Front Bottoms’ token half-sung, half-spoken verses before an exciting and explosive chorus. With a penchant for precise lyricism, the band has a way of drawing listeners into small moments and, ultimately, into their reflection on the past and all the ways our surroundings are prone to change.
Montgomery forever, and ever, and ever
Now they’re blowing it up
Montgomery forever, and ever, and ever
Now they’re blowing it up
Though it was written prior to the pandemic and the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, the song manages to harness in on the civil unrest 2020 finds us in. The repeated imagery of Montgomery being “blown up,” intentional or not, also alludes to a sense of hope. When referring to a rotten system or a rotten tree, the best way to move forward is often to burn it down and start again. Through that lens, “montgomery forever” becomes part of a larger story, injecting the world with energy and hope for the future.
‘Cause I am the victim of a scam
Soft shape, hard cast
I am the virus, here and now
Focus on that, zone it out
As the instruments fade, the song morphs into a snippet of time in between recording and ends with a brief, piano-backed spoken word.
I am on no drugs at the moment
I would pass any drug test you could give me
Like an itch, you’re a tick. You don’t even exist
I understand why you had to ditch me. You fell in love with someone else
And a long time ago, I promised that if you were happy, then I was happy.
Nothing else to talk about.
Those final words of “montgomery forever” may sound finite, but as a small piece of a bigger story, they leave us excitedly waiting to hear what is sure to be a great record. That record, In Sickness & In Flames, can be heard in full on August 21, 2020, via Fueled by Ramen.
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Listen: “montgomery forever” – The Front Bottoms
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