Three-piece band Holloway pair emotional vulnerability with tongue-in-cheek barbs on thunderous new single date all my friends.
Holloway have shared a head-banging treatise on modern love in the form of their new single, date all my friends. A blissful combination of pop punk and emo revival, the track opens with thunderous screechy guitars and the enrapturing delivery of lead vocalist Lou Valentine.
Coasting on punchy percussion courtesy of Taylor Criscuola, date all my friends flits between pop melodies and garage aesthetics, delivering the kind of nostalgic aughties rock you might hear on the soundtrack of a beloved teen movie.
For all its grungy glory — complete with frantic instrumentation and the reverb-heavy guitar work of Max Long — date all my friends isn’t confined to any one sound.
In between the punk rock staples, helped along by Valentine’s whiny vocals, Holloway incorporate unique flairs from spacey electronic synths to an almost-acoustic pop bridge.
Later, Valentine adopts a rapid-fire cadence in the vein of a rap bar, again highlighting Holloway’s sonic versatility while still honouring their punkish tendencies.
Within this diverse palette, Valentine smuggles incisive lyrics about coming to terms with their bisexuality, expressing a tongue-in-cheek desire to “give up pretence” and “swipe right” on whoever’s caught their attention.
In between relatable declarations of sexual frustration, Valentine also showcases a tender vulnerability, singing of their desire to be “stable and emotionally available.”
Criss-crossing between humour and candour with a sound that’s equally unconfined, Holloway prove that music can be poignant without sacrificing the free-spirited fun.
“date all my friends is all literal, all honest, and all true, the good and the bad,” Valentine said in a press statement. “Most of my songs come from a pretty metaphorical place… With date all my friends, I was like, ‘what if I took out the metaphorical side completely?’”
date all my friends follows crush as the second single to be released by Holloway this year, having elsewhere shared the EP Prescription Cosmetics in 2021.
Listen to Holloway’s new single date all my friends below.
