EP Review: Wilmette – Anxious Body

Wilmette describe themselves as ‘a 4-piece from the Chicago suburbs that combines pop-punk and hardcore with a fresh style that relies on pop hooks, honest lyrics and strong musicianship’, and if you had never heard this particular brand of earnest pop-punk before, you would be impressed with each of those attributes. Wilmette‘s problem is that admirable as the Anxious Body EP is, there is nothing really ‘fresh’ about the approach. From the breezy dialled back intro of opener Anxious Body through the rolled-back-treble-fade-in-intro to Paul Rutt and the thundering stop/start emo of, well, every track, there’s an uncomfortable sense that of I’ve kind of heard this before. Not that Wilmette are derivative. Quite the opposite – there is clearly a lot of musical intelligence and invention at work here. The trouble is that their fresh approach is to a large degree a case of old wine in a new bottle. Deliberate or not, there’s not enough evidence here to differentiate them from the following horde. Maybe that’s a scene thing. Maybe there is a generic set of triggers bands have to hit to be part of something (which is the same as it ever was), but this reviewer has been around long enough to know that it is the ability to transcend genres with relentless individuality that sets a band up for a long career.

All that said, this is by no means a poor effort. These are great songs, full of power and hooks, all beautifully captured by producer Seth Henderson. It sounds fantastic, it’s earnest and heartfelt and there is absolutely no reason not to buy it. The catch? Well, there’s an advisory ‘… if you like this kind of thing’ proviso, because there’s just not quite enough personality or innovation here to lift it above the crowded space that is this kind of pop-emo-punk right now. 

Anxious Body EP is out July 19 on Mutant League Records. It is produced by Seth Henderson (Knuckle Puck, Real Friends) and mastered by Kris Crummett (Sleeping With Sirens).