envelope yourself in the latest from raavi & the houseplants: "sticky"
By Anders Dahl
“Sticky” opens with bouncing guitars and soft, intimate vocals that sound almost as if they’re being whispered right into your ear. As the song progresses, more and more instruments slowly appear, so subtly and comfortably you don’t notice their entrance, just the slow growth of the song. The second verse is where the track blossoms, as the vocals become more confident and brassy (partially due to being doubled), and chimes, bells, and more guitar tracks skitter and swell behind, emphasizing the lead without burying it in the mix. That is where this song truly excels; the lush, warm soundscape that just seems to envelope you slowly and warm you to the core.
Self described as “emo lounge,” Raavi & the Houseplants falls somewhere in between math rock and jazz a la Pool Kids, featuring the lush and complex soundscapes of many Japanese math rock bands like paranoid void and the jazzy charisma of Early Eyes, proving complex yet catchy.
While lacking the dark tone of aforementioned emo contemporaries Pool Kids, the lyrics are where the similarities emerge. “Sticky” is a reflection on a crush that didn’t work out, the subsequent rebound, and being stuck to both simultaneously. The lyricist can see the new interest falling for them, but seems to be witnessing it from a callous place: not one welcoming the development. The narrator is “ too scared to end up where he lands” (he being the previous romantic interest) and therefore can’t bring themselves to remove themselves from the relationship they know they don't want. This frustration and sadness is expressed in the song’s culmination, a pained admittance of “I’m not as well off as I like to show.”
“Sticky” is a fitting name for a song this willing to mold itself to your ear, then your mind, then your heart so you can’t quite forget your urge to press play again.