SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PERSONAL TRAINER – WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE?

PERSONAL TRAINER
WHAT WAS THERE BEFORE?
INDEPENDENT

Personal Trainer’s debut EP, What Was There Before?, is a display of what once was, mourning girlhood and grasping onto any hallucination of innocence that can be found in the “bottom of your world”.

Each track of the EP serves as a stage of life, beginning with a raging tantrum titled “What’s Left” with pitchy vocals and taunting rhetoric. The contradiction between the title of the song and the title of the EP draws out the mixed emotions felt towards early adulthood and coming of age. Personal Trainer loves to play around with these dichotomies as can be seen again in “Mustang” when they repeat the line “He would run”, just as an innocent boy would do when playing outside, then eventually follow up with “He would run his hands down”, having the listener feed into this innuendo of a hookup.

If Personal Trainer wants to do anything, they want to be unpredictable. Each song includes such a drastic change of tone in their verses that caters incredibly to the youthful fury they want to portray. The format of their songs also contributes to this, as they don’t often follow the typical formula when it comes to the arrangement of their verses. Similarly to “Sex” by The 1975, they avoid this general format of pop music in hopes to build up energy and provide no resolution in order to portray the adrenaline of being a teenager. They also seem to have adopted The Killers style choir to resolve their song Gills. This lack of predictability fits in so impeccable with the theme of youth and the chaos of it all.

The real star of this freak show is “Backyard”. The nostalgic track is so gentle to the touch, capturing the perfect image of longing and what could’ve been. The deep bass, the distorted arpeggio played by the guitar, along with the gentle singing during the first verse creates such a vulnerable listen, leaving you sitting with the bittersweetness of your own youth.

What Was There Before? Is a sentimental flashback and present reflection of growing up. An enjoyable collection of music for the most part, but “Backyard” truly made the EP as astonishing as it is.

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