When it comes to instilling attitude into a song, The Pretty Ugly hit the nail on the head with their new single All The Time.
With a variety of different sounds that can be described as; a guitar that’s got a summertime twang, a bass that’s doing more than just carrying the beat, and drums that are filled with flourishes from top to bottom.
Breaking it down in more detail though, starting with the guitars, they’re filled with this feeling of summer. The twangs that have a lot of pop-punk built into them and just scream to be put into an anthem exactly like this one. They carry this inherent happiness to them, which is bittersweet compared to the songs overall message of not belonging.
Next up is the bass, and here, The Pretty Ugly could have easily just stuck to a basic bass guitar tune that hits all the notes right and keeps to the drum beat. But no, instead there’s a punk-ish feel to it as they weave in various notes and string transitions just to liven it up that little bit more. It’s a nice touch that’s subtle and hard to notice with the rest of the band playing around it. But it’s there, and it really shows how well crafted All The Time is, right down to its basic elements.
The drums are a similar story, keeping up a nice beat where the song needs it, but showing off in those brief transitional moments, and periods of downtime with these fast and powerful beats is fantastic.
Given the amount of things going on, it may seem chaotic at times but it’s all rolled together perfectly and tied up in a neat package that captures that bittersweet essence of school life, not fitting in and that melancholy of summer.