Key Tracks: “See You Later” “Let Me Join You…”

If the name Our Wits rings a far-off bell in the back of your head somewhere, then there’s a reason – the post-hardcore band just released their sophomore album Let Me Join You, a full nine years after their debut record The Manifesto. The band was initially started by singer Dean Scordilis as a solo spoken-word project (!) before Matt Billy, Nagee Diaz-Corpening and Mark Boulanger all came aboard. The length of time between records was both self-imposed, so the band could truly hone their sound, and world-imposed, with the COVID onslaught. The album explores grief and reckoning in broad terms, with a focus on the sheer passage of time and the people and memories we no longer hold close. It’s fitting, really, for such a lengthy absence before the record’s release.

As one might expect knowing the history of the band’s formation, Our Wits don’t comfortably fit into any one genre. Join You is, at its center, a post-hardcore record. We hear it the most in “Why Is It That Only You Were Saved?” and the title track. These are songs that have a pounding rhythm and a fairly relentless dose of heaviness, without sacrificing melody. Scordilis’s screaming throughout the record does the band favors. His voice is piercing and flat, and adds intensity to the tracks. It also helps put the band in the same league as someone like Actor|Observer, a post-hardcore group who use these similar vocals to edge towards – but never truly embrace – metal. This is the most evident on “See You Later,” which comes the closest to metal without bridging the gap. 

But this isn’t just a post-hardcore album. There are healthy doses of emo and punk as well. “See You Later” gives way to “Truly, A Diminishing Return,” which immediately resets things with a classically Midwestern emo guitar riff. It also shows a lot more restraint and patience than the previous tune, showing the band’s full spectrum within two tracks. “Martyrs” might be the biggest outlier on the album, a song that embraces the punk side the most and feels the most coordinated. The call-and-response chorus is indicative of pop-punk, though it’s difficult to mistake the song as being pop-punk at all. 

The biggest wrench in the adjective department, however, is the ambient element. I don’t mean true ambient music, but there are many moments of calmness peppered into the record. The opening track, “A Dream, Interrupted,” is a sour spoken-word tune that sets the album’s remorseful tone. “Why Is It That Only You Were Saved?” is the heaviest song on the album, but it does feature a long and somewhat peaceful bridge before it swings back into a big climax. “Haunt Me,” which acts as an interlude of sorts, is a sparkly and dreamy little cut that slices right through the middle of the record. And, “…Until Everything Fades” closes the record out with an extended and oddly soothing calmness to it. Many of these tracks seem to have some calm rhythms playing beyond the chaos. 

Lyrically, Join You explores the pessimistic side of nostalgia, while acknowledging the person of the present (whatever that means for you, the listener). Many of these songs do touch upon death and the immediate grief, with “Return” even taking place at a funeral. But these songs are more conceptual, pondering on losing people who are still alive, and the anger you can feel at yourself for letting people drift away. The lyrics here are very poetic and come straight from the heart. There are a lot of difficult pills to swallow here, even in times where the lyrics are strictly personal. Besides some necessary jabs at politicians, there are a lot of melancholic and grief-ridden passages of loss that read like eulogies. It’s feel-bad, but it’s a mood we can all relate to. 

This album crams a lot into a sub-40 minute runtime. We’ve got walls of guitars, peaceful bridges, rousing choruses, and imminently relatable lyrics that touch on the people we’ve lost and the memories we’re losing. What more could you ask for from a post-hardcore record? It’s a delectable blend of ideas and influences. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait nine years for the next album.