Flashback to May 2013. Terriers were about to release their debut album, Unrequited Admiration Society and I invited them to come to Handwritten Recording and do a tune for my Hasty Revelations project. I posted the song as some extra coverage for their record release, though the song was new and didn’t appear on that first album. Now, over four years later, “Anything” is the first track on I Don’t Still Want To Unless You Want To. The new version is better, of course, but it’s interesting to hear the two takes and notice the differences.
Terriers took their time getting their second album together. Once again working under the guidance of producer Dan Duszynski (Gold Motel,Cross Record), they kept a lot of the qualities that made UAS such a good listen. The band has changed some, but you still get the great harmonies between lead singer Danny Cohen and keyboardist/singer Nora Leahy on “Younger.” The song’s feel like they could have been written by a 70’s singer-songwriter (Croce, Nilsson) and the band fills them in with the same kind of vibe. The whole sound speaks to Cohen’s love for arena-filling melodies and heart-wrenching stories of lost love.
Each song changes the sonic landscape a bit, without ever venturing too far from what you could call Terriers wheelhouse. The band bring in shades of country and pop. On the title track, they harness their inner Crosby, Stills and Nash with some soft guitar strumming and big, powerful vocals. The harmony on the chorus is a reminder that other people have felt this way and the singer is not alone.
“I shouldn’t think I’d like to see you again. I’d be so cruel to blindly welcome in that heartache. And yet I know that that’s exactly what I am, I am a fool designed to make the same mistakes.”
What Terriers does so well, is take feelings that are universally felt at one time or another and turn them into music that you can listen to over and over. The songs are so well-crafted, even listening to them as instrumentals creates a strong emotional reaction. Self-doubt, fear of loss, jealousy, anger; they all come through in equal measure throughout I Don’t Still Want To Unless You Want To.
The album is out October 20th, and you can pre-order it today on their Bandcamp page. They played their first show in a long while last month. The release show for the album is Monday October 23rd at Schubas. It is FREE, so no excuse not to go if you’re in the Chicago area.