Party Muscles Juxtapose Cynicism With Clarity On "INTERNaL aFFaIRS"
Party Muscles, photo courtesy of the artist
By Emily Herbein and Bre Cura
Kicking off with a bright introduction reminiscent of The Strokes’ “Last Night,” Party Muscles’ second LP INTERNaL aFFaIRS is a classic rock album with hints of self-deprecation, communal observation, and velvety, fuzzed-out vocals. The Philly natives gave us a taste of how INTERNaL aFFaIRS would differ from 2019’s Does It Even Matter with the teaser single “Citywalking” back in March, and the band has traded their rough-cut, emotive sound for one that’s more refined and dialed in. It’s completely evident that both of these releases share a commonality, and that’s the evocative clarity of singer Colin McCarry’s vocals and the almost vintage-sounding filtered guitars. INTERNaL aFFaIRS is Does It Even Matter, grown up.
Within the same vein of The Districts, Ali Awan, and Slomo Sapiens, Philly has cultivated its own unique circle of indie and grunge-adjacent rockers. Party Muscles fit in nicely, making a space for themselves somewhere in between the two sounds. There’s no performative rock value added here. Party Muscles are the genuine sort of heavy, but still know how to rein themselves in when the track calls for some delicacy.
With a tactful balance of emotive, introspective tracks juxtaposed with out-and-out rock songs, INTERNaL aFFaIRS is an album where you have to pay attention to details. Mindful tracks like “Error 35,” which paints the picture of a regretful morning after, and “Pxssion,” an ode to self-criticism, put the listener inside of a mind struggling to find its own rhythm. More overt tracks like “Kensington Delegate” and “Out the Door” just want to rock with you, and they do. There are songs meant to be pulled apart, and there are songs meant to be left alone.
The title track, “Internal Affairs,” is the perfect mid-album suspension, allowing for a bit of a breather as the album fluctuates frequently between those solemn notes of cynicism and more energized moments of euphoric rock. It sounds like it could even be the closer, because it plays on both introspective and extrospective moods, but it still hints at the sense of more by the end, and we’re ready to jump back into the shimmering riffs of “Kensington Delegate.”
The drawn-out synths and subtle background noises of closing track “Some Things Never Change” creates a completely different energy as an ethereal yet eerie direction is pointed out for the album, which might have been missed had this track been placed anywhere else in the lineup. The listener is suddenly taken from a basement show to a montage of all of life's most reflective moments. This is the kind of song you'll want to play on loop as you drive around the city after you've just ended a relationship, graduated college, or just want to have one of those purposefully Perks of Being a Wallflower moments.
Party Muscles knew exactly how to refine and revamp their sound when coming together to work on INTERNaL aFFaIRS. There’s a reason they’re one of Philly’s favorites, and it’s because of their chameleon-like soundscapes, lyrics that are nostalgically universal to our scene, and enough chemistry and charisma to remind us just how good we have it. What we wouldn’t give to see this album played live for a release show.