“Enemy Among Us" by Paper Route (update repost), Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Paper Route’s debut record Absence was mostly word of mouth from the band’s existing fan base and getting on major tours with Paramore, Mutemath, and others, despite the band being on a division of a major label. The band’s established fan base, curated through touring and social media, had already been introduced to the band’s evolving sound on the Are We All Forgotten EP released on 2008 from the folk-electronic sound of their early efforts. Absence though was full electronic progressive pop, but one that started with a hypnotic acoustic piano loop.
HE STOLE AS BEST HE COULD. The disorienting intro to the song "Enemy Among Us" is a reverberated piano. In the living-room-filmed album promotional performance video (see below) shows a drum set a top the electric piano as Chad Howat plays the song. I have no idea how the band recorded the song, but Absence is an album that I would like to know more technical specifics about how they captured certain sounds. Besides wondering what that synth tone at the beginning of "Are We All Forgotten" and the dirty bass distortion on "Gutter," I wonder about the looping and drum programming on "Enemy." Unlike Acceptance who had built up a fanbase in the Seattle Emo rock scene, Paper Route fans weren't expecting hard rock from them. Absence starts as a pop record and then transitions into rock before coming back to pop and flirts with EDM all along the way. The band's second record, The Peace of Wild Things stays mostly in the territory of pop, while their third record Real Emotion starts with the rock song "Writing on the Wall" before completely becoming a pop album. Listeners never knew what to expect from Paper Route, but what could be expected is that Christian-leaning progressive indie pop bands (i.e. Copeland, Deas Vail, Cool Hand Luke) rarely amassed the level of fans as the heavier ones (i.e. Anberlin, Underoath, Norma Jean).
FELL INTO A HOLE. What makes "Enemy Among Us" so appealing is how chill it appears on the surface, but how creepy it turns out to be. It's calm, but never safe. The lyrics seem to draw on falling down the rabbit hole, reminding listeners of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. On their next album, "Rabbit Holes" seems to draw on similar themes. While Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are fun and fantastical, they are not safe or peaceful. The rabbit hole in this song, though, introduces the listener to an enemy "who stole as best he could / our hearts." It's almost as if in the span of this 4:45 song, we're introduced to a figure who is suspected to be the villain in a James Bond film or some film noir. You feel charmed by him, but you remind yourself to be careful about which information you give him. You are constantly telling yourself that although he's friendly, he's not your friend. You're not sure what he'll do with that information, but you certainly don't want to be the loser in whatever this is. But Absence doesn't appear to be a concept record. We don't have the big reveal. We don't have the fall out. What we have is the peace and the anxiety. We have the waiting. There's interesting drum programming to keep us on edge, but the frantic piano and rock sounds of the following track, "Wish," change the subject. Enemy averted?
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