Sweet Pill - 'Miss This/Tell Me' Single Review

Sweet Pill are an up and coming five piece band hailing from Philadelphia, who offer up their own blend of Math-Rock, Mid-West Emo, Indie and Alternative Rock. Following on from their debut EP earlier in the year, the band have now dropped a double A-side in the form of ‘Miss This/Tell Me’ and it’s good to see the group getting stronger with every release.

Equipped with a combination of crunchy, finger-tapped lead guitar lines and distorted rhythm chords that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Glocca Morra or Algernon Cadweller track, the band create these intricate layers of sound that intwine effortlessly with one another. The impassioned melodic vocals sound like they were stripped straight from an alternative 90s band, but the harmonies and gang vocals more closely emulate the styles of recent Pop-Punk outfits such as Pup or Pet Symmetry. The result is a strong combination of Pop appeal and DIY, Punk aesthetics, which is sure to resonate well with fans of guitar-led music.

‘Miss This’ is the longer of the two tracks, but throughout its almost 5 minutes of run time it does whatever it can to keep you enticed and win you over. With multiple dynamic changes in one verse alone, this song is constantly changing and showing you something new and interesting around every corner. The bridge combines two duelling guitar lines with a sweet, catchy vocal melody that stands out in my head as the strongest and most memorable section of the entire song. My one issue with this song is that despite my prior compliments about its dynamic changes and interest, it does feel a little too long and some sections could’ve been cut shorter.

‘Tell Me’ address this issue straight off the bat however and is a much shorter, simpler tune on the whole. That isn’t to say it’s simple however! The Math-Rock lead lines are back and playing off one another beautifully underneath layers of energetic group vocals and punchy drums. This song Is definitely the weaker of the two however, as the vocal melody gets a little repetitive at times, but the huge open sound of the chorus and the heartfelt, strained vocal sections from around halfway onwards go a long way in winning me back around.

Overall, this shows a promising young band continuing to show their promise. Whilst it isn’t a wholly original sound, the band have the personality, energy and technical chops to effectively wiggle their way into your head and I’m looking forward to hearing more from them in future.