Anxious
Bambi
RUN FOR COVER
Anxious describe their second full-length Bambi as being inspired by “big swing” records like blink-182’s self-titled, or Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. These are just two bands from the turn of the millennium that had the chops and vision to craft music that transcended their creators’ pop-punk beginnings and ascended the decade’s rock-friendly charts. While Millennial meme culture enjoys poking fun at the myriad transgressions of this period, plenty of bands also made energetic, vibrant pop-art—see the aforementioned acts along with the likes of Taking Back Sunday, Saves the Day, The Get Up Kids, and many others that hold up well more than 20 years later.
Via their “big swing” Bambi, the intelligent, ambitious Anxious are placing themselves in this top-tier lineage of emo-inflected pop-rock acts. 2022’s Little Green House was a solid debut effort, an effervescent collection of raw, bouncy, and soulful emo-punk bangers that you could simultaneously cry and stage dive to. Following several years of intense touring and the growth that surely comes with it, the Connecticut-based youths are attempting a level-up. While Anxious’ sharp grasp of melody and song structuring was clear to see on their debut, Bambi’s 11 tracks throw everything else in the pop-rock playbook at the wall in search of what sticks. There’s vocal harmonies, guitar solos, layers of percussion, and a crisp, ultra-modern production style that envelops you with its maximalist warmth.
To the band’s credit, most of it works. You can really feel how hard Anxious have worked on refining each track. “Tell Me Why” features Beach Boys–style harmonies, and “Sunder” utilizes handclaps, even more vocal layers, and a sharp structure that maintains a thrilling pace. Elsewhere, “Some Girls” is a sweet, midtempo number full of clever switches in vocal speed and a recurring background melody that soars quite beautifully. It all smacks of an album that’s been fine-tuned and pored over to the nth degree.
This does mean that some of the spikier energy of Little Green House has been lost in translation, which may not work for some listeners. Also, the band’s choice to hone in on writing uber-catchy, uptempo anthems means that a couple of tracks do blend into one another. But minor quibbles aside, Bambi is a well-crafted, emotionally intelligent effort that should help place its creators in the aforementioned lineage of accessible but thoughtful pop-punk.
