no sophomore slump for declan mckenna’s ‘zeros’
By Nora Rhein
Mix George Harrison, David Bowie, The Strokes, and some glitter eyeliner into a transcendental blender; you’d get Declan McKenna’s new album Zeros.
After a successful debut with his first studio album What Do You Think About the Car?, McKenna gives us a new concept album, which can only be described as a raw, forewarning cyber-galactic fantasy. He’s telling us a story about who we are, the messes we’ve made, and how the world will end. Strategically playing off of our memory of previous rockers, he shifts the narrative from generally angry to existential emergency.
Right from the supercharged opening track “You Better Believe!!!,” listeners are launched into his narrative. The energetic tempo reels listeners in, but they’ll stay for the witty lyrics and delivery. This song also serves as a rebirth for McKenna, who announces his newfound maturity in a chaotic fanfare. This growth is shown with lines like “What do you think about the rocket I built / What do you think about the blood that I bleed?,” a subtle nod to how he’s evolved since What Do You Think About the Car?. The opening clues us into the central themes of the album, and presents the storyline that the rest of the tracks follow: we’ve killed the world; we’re going to space.
Either directly or indirectly, McKenna elaborates on this meaning throughout the rest of the album. He comments on destruction, climate change, capitalism, modern loneliness, and the drawbacks of our industrial world. He makes a prophecy from our faults, like in “Twice Your Size” when he sings, “Regardless of what you believe in / Earth will change and we must grab our beds / And get off out of range.”
We also follow the character Daniel through several songs, who McKenna described as a personification of anxiety for him and his generation. Daniel feels unsafe in his world, like he’s always in the wrong. In the YouTube documentary for Zeros, McKenna described this struggle with the question: “Where do people turn to when the world rejects them and tells them that who they are isn’t valid?” Daniel directly appears in “Daniel, You’re Still a Child” and “Be an Astronaut,” feeling like a desperate plea to find purpose in a lost generation.
You’re given a break with “Emily,” a softer stripped down ballad. It feels somewhat out of place, but after a while of listening to heavy instrumentation and chaotic energy, it’s nice to hear McKenna’s natural talent. Songs that follow, like “Sagittarius A*” and “Eventually, Darling,” go back to the similar idea and sound as before, telling us where our faults lie.
Although you can clearly hear his influences, he has a style all his own. The pop rock and matter-of-fact lyric delivery mixed with dreamy, imaginative melodies create a conflict within the self. Listeners are left feeling angry, yet somehow completely enamoured with the infinite universe.
Vulnerable lyrics, like “What is wrong with Daniel, he's no fun / You just wait 'til Daniel hurts someone / Daniel, you're a weirdo, what the hell? / You just wait 'til Daniel hurts himself” hit hard. Then, listeners are brought back up with infectious earworms like “The Key to Life on Earth” and “Beautiful Faces.” With one full listen, McKenna cuts listeners open and then launches them into orbit.
Zeros has been criticized for ripping off the influential artists named earlier, but this isn’t necessarily the case. He’s making listeners look back to ‘70s glam rock, but there’s an unmistakable sound of the future, incorporating indie elements that rockers of the past didn’t. His style is more alternative, and his pessimism present for a greater reason.
One aspect that Zeros lacks is continuity. There are different ideas within the album, all with their respective sounds. While he ties these together and creates the general feeling, some songs don’t transition as smoothly. The transition with songs surrounding “Emily” is one example of this. It’s a little jarring to go from drum-heavy “Daniel, You’re Still a Child” to the more acoustic “Emily” and back to the shouting “Twice Your Size.”
Issues with cohesion aside, what McKenna has done by producing a concept album at 21 years old is incredibly bold, considering some bands wait 20 years before writing a concept album. The familiar sounds of nostalgia combined with confronting our doom makes this feel like the soundtrack to a dystopian coming of age film. You’re floating through space, looking longingly towards your ruined home planet. After his fame as a “child prodigy,” with Zeros, McKenna proves he has the chops for longevity.