By Kelly Wynne
Culture Writer
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With the birth of Terror Jr came a conversation on identity, politics and the future of pop. From being virtually unknown in the music world to being one of the largest conversations—rumors swirled Kylie Jenner was a group member—the band has had almost three years to define themselves in the public space, and Unfortunately, Terror Jr defines them as something larger than pop as we know it.
The band's debut album, out Friday, is a bubblegum ode to modern culture, but it's not what you know of pop music. From blunt statements on politics, including a blatant Trump mention, to deep, eerie and melancholy messages and images, the era of Unfortunately, Terror Jr is a craftable world of its own. Only time will tell which direction the duo chooses to take it.
The 15-track album began as a whopping 100 plus, according to David Singer-Vine, one half of the group. To narrow down the collection to the 15 they decided to keep, Terror Jr stuck with the ones they felt most closely represented who they wanted to be in terms of future growth. "We want to be great," Singer-Vine told Newsweek. "The greats evolve constantly. These songs on this album, it's a departure in a sense of the scale of it all. I think this is the grandest we've appeared."
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And Singer-Vine is right. From beautiful, slow jam "Terrified" that showcases the restraints of true love to nearly satirical "A-OK (Everything's Perfect)" with lyrics "Everything's A-OK if we don't look too hard," the group has blast far off the picturesque, suburban wasteland of Bop City they hand crafted in their first three EP releases.
Terror Jr's social awareness is beyond pop music heard on the radio, and beyond your favorite celebrities mentioning their political views. Lead singer Lisa Vitale explained why the group is drawn to writing these issues without masking the message. "It's hard to ignore what's going on around us in the world right now," Vitale told Newsweek. "I think it's important to not only stand up and promote your political views on Instagram, but to inject those into your music because I think that's a more effective way of getting people to listen."
And the darkness, depth and reality is presented in a bow in the album title. "I kind of think of it as the signature at the end of a letter," Vitale explained. "It's signed from us to the world. There is a bit of darkness and melancholy to a lot of the songs and to the state of the world right now. Even though they sound happy, when you look closely, it's a reflection on how we feel."
It's what music means to them at the moment. Whether activism or a way of coping, Singer-Vine explained what music means to an individual depends on the circumstances. "Music changes. Sometimes it's pleasure. Sometimes it's life or death," he said. "You have to find that out when you're at a really low point, how important music can be. You've heard it before, it's a language. But music is like blood."
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