From sampling any of the four singles that preceded Little Green House, the debut record from the barely-out-of-high-school punks in Anxious, it’s clear that the pressure of relationships and the general sense of dread that weighs upon you in your formative years as you look toward the future weighs heavily on the band (in other words, the band sounds anxious—who would’ve guessed!). In addition to the singles being tidied up from the more demo-quality and post-hardcore-conscious early EPs and singles, House sees the group try out a more streamlined pop-punk sound—with the occasional guitar noodling feeling native to the Midwest emo scene—with particularly yearny lyrics standing out in moments like the coda on “Growing Up Song.”
Meanwhile, tracks like “Speechless” channel the mainstream in-your-face pop-punk of early-’00s groups like Sum 41 while maintaining these same lyrical themes. From the dissolution of platonic and romantic relationships—both their own and those of their parents—to risky texts sent and letters never mailed, to autobiographical scenes that feel ripped from a dated sitcom worthy of a “Fat Lip” needle drop, vocalist Grady Allen and guitarist Dante Melucci dug a little deeper into each of the subjects covered on the album in the track-by-track below. Stream along, and grab the record here via Run for Cover.
1. “Your One Way Street”
Grady Allen: This song focuses on being frustrated with a long-term friend for not being the person they once were and subsequently realizing that that’s an unrealistic expectation. I felt as I started getting older, me and this person started to drift from one another. I assumed it was because of some deeper tangible reason. That feeling bred frustration, anger, and resentment toward that person. But ultimately I realized that anger was unfounded. I realized there was no schism in our relationship—we were both just getting older and changing and becoming two separate human beings who just weren’t very compatible. It’s hard to watch someone you know and love just become someone you knew—and “Your One Way Street” is about that process.
2. “In April”
Allen: This song is a tough one. At the end of 2019 I broke up with my first serious girlfriend. We had been dating for over three years and had been dating throughout our formative teen years. There was no animosity that ended the relationship—I just realized that I had completely drifted and just wasn’t feeling anything anymore about this person. It was such an awful feeling and I felt so guilty all the time about it. This person was so caring and passionate about me, but I just couldn’t reciprocate it. At the same time, I still really struggled with the idea of letting this person go. I was totally at a loss of what to do. Anyway, the song is just me navigating the emotions of guilt while also trying to accept the positive feelings I had about my newfound “freedom.”
3. “Growing Up Song”
Dante Melucci: “Growing Up Song” is about how I cope with people close to me changing as we’ve become young adults. I wanted it to be a sort of apology to a person I was in a relationship with in high school who was really going through it when we were together, in the same way everyone struggles with who they are around that age, but I made it about myself and didn’t want to give them the freedom to grow. It’s scary to me when I start to feel like I don’t understand someone I care about anymore, and as easy it is for me to blame them for not being who I thought they were, I’m changing all the time, too—and that’s OK.
4. “More Than a Letter”
Allen: This song is about a person who I used to know and was deeply in love with, although nothing ever came of us romantically. This is largely my fault and is something that was weighing heavily on my mind around the time we were writing the LP. I was prompted to write the song when I discovered a series of letters sitting in a drawer when moving stuff from my mom's house. Me and this person don't talk anymore, and I’m sure we couldn't stand being in the same room with each other now, but these letters made me think and reflect on what almost was. It's a nice thought, but ultimately one that wouldn't have worked. I don't know, love is a really funny thing. I'm amazed anyone can get it right.
5. “Wayne”
Allen: This song was the very last song we wrote for LGH. It was written two weeks before we went into the studio to record. The song was a suggestion from our friend Pat. He explained that the record was so heavy—an acoustic song would break it up and make the whole thing a little more dynamic. So Dante quickly started putting together the music and I started working on the lyrics. I decided that I wanted the song to be sweet and celebratory and stand out against the tone of all the other songs. I finally decided that I wanted to write about my dad. Me and him are super close, and I’m incredibly proud of our relationship. The song is just me talking about our friendship and the lessons I’ve learned from him. Lyrically it’s inspired by two songs my dad often played to me as a young person: “If I Should Fall Behind” by Bruce Springsteen and “Oklahoma Hills” by Woody Guthrie. If you look at those two songs and then take a look at “Wayne,” you realize a lot of the imagery and language is lifted from those songs.
6. “Speechless”
Melucci: I wanted “Speechless” to be a love song about no one, in the same way a boy band like The Beatles or *NSYNC have generic, stock love songs. As the words came together, though, it definitely became a lot more about how I process wanting someone or something that I can’t have or that isn’t meant to be, and all the desperate, pathetic, and childish emotions that come with that. Really a 50/50 split between wanting to be a romantic and possibly behaving like an incel.
7. “Let Me”
Allen: This song is about my parents’ divorce—a long and painful process that lasted from winter of 2019 into January of 2022, three long years. Throughout that process I found that I was kind of a sounding board for my parents’ frustrations and anger. I think me being there was super helpful for my parents (my mom especially), but it was incredibly damaging for me. I was just too close to the whole situation and it really ruined the way I view love in a long-term relationship. I so badly wanted to break free and not be a part of the situation anymore, but I couldn’t manage to see my parents in so much pain.
8. “Call From You”
Allen: This is one of my favorite songs on the whole record, lyrically speaking. It’s about me being hyper-fixated on how my words are interpreted and how I’m being perceived. I stress over every single text that I send and everything that I say. I find myself filling conversation with meaningless questions to fill the void of me being anxious to actually connect with people. It’s nerve wracking. It’s something that I’m actively working on and trying to get better at, but it’s tough.
9. “Afternoon”
Melucci: The lyrics to “Afternoon” were written pretty much all at once this one evening when I missed my little brother’s talent show because I was doing something else in the city. It was a real movie-dad-misses-kid’s-baseball-game moment when I got to Grand Central and the train I had to make had just left. It’s also just about how everyone has their own paths in their lives, and sometimes they cross over for a while, but they inevitably break apart and continue forward. It’s a big fear of mine that when I eventually move out of my parents’ house and away from my siblings, that’ll mark the end of our lives crossing over in a significant way.
10. “You When You’re Gone”
Melucci: When writing lyrics for “You When You’re Gone,” I was dreading not being a kid anymore, and I had thought that a lot of the feelings Grady and I wrote about on the other songs either contributed to or were caused by that dread. I didn’t think there was a way to describe that feeling outright, since I wasn’t even totally sure what the feeling was, so I just wrote whatever came to mind and hoped that would be enough to put someone in my place and understand. It’s something I really like about these words; every time I revisit them, I relate to them a little differently and interpret the literal words differently, but still connect to that feeling of growing up and not knowing what to do about it.
