All Ears Avow, Be That Nothing
Self-release

Lockdown has never sounded so funky thanks to All Ears Avow’s new single, Be That Nothing. When the pandemic started, maybe we expected the tunes inspired by it to sound like gloom, maybe a few apocalyptic soundscapes, ethereal existential dread… no sign of it here. Be That Nothing is a banger, and even manages to find a way to celebrate the ‘nothing’ of the now-long-past stillness that was lockdown #1.

Between the 1975-if-they-were-pop-punk guitar melodies and the sheer cool of vocalist Claire Sutton’s delivery, Be That Nothing will nestle cosily into your brain and then never leave. The hooks are bold and totally infectious, the kind you’ll catch yourself head-bobbing to constantly throughout the day before being struck with an utter need to stick All Ears Avow on and sing along. The beat is attitude-packed and buzzy, the melodies are bright and dark all at once – Be That Nothing is the definition of a groove.

All Ears Avow tap into the computerised confusion of adapting to endless streams of YouTube workouts and Zoom calls with their glitchy vocal effects and swirling, distorted reverberations. But they also evoke the universality of what we all experienced – seeking those hits of social interaction and dopamine anywhere we could get them, the remarkable adaptations of bands and the music industry to a virtual scene, and all we stand to gain by having a moment to pause and be introspective for a moment in our relentlessly fast-paced world. Be That Nothing is an addictive listen, to keep propelling us towards excitement even in static times.

Be That Nothing is out now.