Bleachers’ new album, ‘everyone for ten minutes’, immediately piques curiosity about its meaning. Inspired by how long we’re accessible when sharing across devices, the title speaks to the brief moments we allow ourselves to let others in and to feel. For ten minutes. For an hour. For a few seconds. And it’s that hopefulness that resonates the most.
Every song acts as a door, a passageway to deeply personal glimpses into the band's life, from feelings of love and adoration mirrored in Jack Antonoff's marriage to flashes of nostalgia looking back at life on the road as a touring artist. The artwork, showing the front man doubled over shielding his shirtless frame, reflects the need to protect ourselves, even more so now in a digital world where accessibility is almost a given.
Antonoff, Hutchinson, Riddleberger, Freedom Hart, Smith, and Audu bring shared aspects of the human condition to life without losing any personal sincerity. Every song feels deeply individual yet completely communal. Antonoff’s close-mic’d vocals feel like a private conversation with an old friend rather than a performance. The connection between the artist, the art, and the audience runs throughout.
From the upbeat angelic moments in the intro track ‘sideways’, with the swell of drums, acoustic guitar, and twinkle of bells, to the warming wistfulness of the lived-in reminiscence of ‘the van’, there’s an inescapable desire to bond with others. To love. To escape the shadows of loneliness.
While the upbeat buzz of synths and the bounce of groove-laden bass in ‘we should talk’ depart instrumentally from the first two pieces, lyrically, it continues this search, exploring how the unpredictabilities and unanswered questions of life change us. Written about the shifting nature of relationships, the track documents the different paths we walk and how they might differ from those we envisioned in 2012; our “dreams turn to memories.”
This overboding sense of melancholy returns in ‘dancing’, where Antonoff clings to fading memories, the pains of heartbreak, and pleas for forgiveness. Contrary to the quickening acoustic guitar melody, it’s rooted in loss, reaching those left living and the reminders that punctuate their lives. Emotional melodic swells emphasise the song. There’s profound sadness in the repeated rhetorical questions “how could you let me do this alone?” and “do you think about it when you think about it?”. The line “glory to the ones who are left, hallelujah” feels bittersweet rather than celebratory.
Emotion is not the only influence in the album. Antonoff’s musical influences are clear in the flourishes of saxophone and harmonica that accent tracks like ‘dirty wedding dress’ and ‘take you out tonight’. It has an infectious East Coast sound made famous by Springsteen. The latter shifts from the discordant echoes of the singer’s voice and organ accompaniment to a hopeful, steadily accelerating groove. The insistence and alacrity in his delivery return in ‘i'm not joking’, where layered vocals skip and jump over “sha la la la la”s and shouts of exhilaration.
Even when the gentle eeriness of ‘you and forever’ (reflective of Antonoff’s other influence, Vince Clarke) opens into that characteristic New Jersey swell, there’s still delicateness. The echo of the saxophone feels like a whisper rather than a shout, showing Bleachers' ability to manipulate instruments to their will, molding them to fit the ups and downs of feeling.
The overwhelming feeling guiding the album is catharsis, punctuated in ‘upstairs at els' by its messy, imperfect humanism. Celebrating the imperfect parts of life with glossy pop and synths, it adds worn-in nostalgia that carries the album.
It’s not just a celebration of where the band are now, but the history that led them here. From the memories they channel to the New Jersey roots influencing the sound, it shows what is possible when we make parts of ourselves accessible.
Megan-Louise Burnham
Image: Alex Lockett
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