OK Cool
Chit Chat
SELF-RELEASED
Two years after Chicago-based duo OK Cool released their last EP Fawn, Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist Waller return with their full-length emo-pop debut, Chit Chat. With these 10 robust, refined, if not also peculiar ballads, the rockers wrap their lyricized self-doubt in a convincing bow of confidence with introspective college-radio-rock songs that both puncture and heal the bubble of femme-fronted DIY punk music. With Chit Chat, OK Cool resize their previously modest expectations with a set of dynamic melodies, catchy harmonies, and emotional pop-punk sensibilities.
As part of the band’s evolution from slacker tendencies, the tracklist is notably mostly filled with songs that reach the traditional three-minute mark—a big deal for the formerly sub-two-minute crew. The extra room allows for newly mastered techniques to shine among all the tender narratives, such as delicate piano passages (“Loop”), neo-alt guitar theatrics (“Jeans (I Get It Now)”), and polished electric-acoustic symmetry (“Last”). Overall, their sound settles calmly with the longer format, with the band exploring their capability to take more space and exercise their full potential. Co-producers and co-writers Stiebris and Blomquist Waller pulled the strings taut on this record, syncing their sonic capabilities through texts, audio messages, and other forms of intimate chit-chat (invariably influencing the name of the album) until one soundwave of utterly recognizable emo-pop formed golden peaks over priceless themes of recentered trust.
Deeply sensitive and unnervingly raw, OK Cool drags casual pop music into the intense realms of punk songwriting to harness a unique emo sound worthy of someday landing alongside names like American Football, Joyce Manor, and Built to Spill. Stiebris and Blomquist Waller walk heavy-footed into a valuable vignette of the splintering emo genre with a stunning debut.
