This track is one of the best examples of collaborative songwriting that we’ve heard in some time and that’s all thanks to gloomy june‘s transparency about how this alt rock-pop romper came to be. It all started at a band practice like any other when the band’s guitarist Devin Nelson arrived with an awesome synth instrumental. Immediately, the rest of the band picked up on the dancey melody and rhythm, which reminded them of an ’80s pop hit like Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, and Nelson gave that inspiration his own spin resulting in ‘Always Gonna Let You Down’.
It’s definitely that insatiably upbeat melody that jumps out and the listener, which is punctuating with lively drums (Ash Hyatt), melodic bassline (Jack Sunquist) and the unmissable vocals of the band’s co-founder Alexi Rose Belchere. It’s actually Belchere who is the mastermind behind the lyrics, which were written during the summer of 2020; she reflects on the uncanny valley of socializing while social distancing by imagining someone at a bad party, having an awful time and even dragging their partner into negative swirl of emotion. From the songs vibrant introduction, we’re met with the contrast of Belchere’s words, “I killed the party, yet again, I’m in the corner trying to drink it out, and I don’t know how it started, in my head.”
The video further brings to life a DIY house party, with gloomy june of course being the band in residence, switching between downcast couch dwellers to energetic party participants. This further presents the dichotomy of this indie-pop floor filler and the dispirited protagonist.
It’s very fair to say that ‘Always Gonna Let You Down’ lives up to the claim that “Gloomy June songs are pop refracted through an anxious lens: sometimes anthemic, often queer, and always a little tragic,” as the band themselves aptly put it.
Check out ‘Always Gonna Let You Down’ in our Outsiders Club and Indie Rockers playlists.
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