It doesn’t take much more than a cursory session with Barista’s Justice Now to pick up on the underlying themes that go beyond the politicized lyrics in the album, starting with the connectivity of the musicianship. Rather than giving us a couple of simple singles and some more involved deep tracks, Barista is dabbling in melodic experimentation (“Breath”), use of harmony (“Anything,” “Little Bird”), and textural presence (“I Exist, Right?,” “The Night Train”) in a way that warrants some serious attention this fall, and not just from the usual suspects in what has become a rather pretentious era for the rock n’ roll underground – though perhaps rightly so.
Justice Now is one of the most progressive rock listens I’ve heard from an emerging act in the last couple of years, but it doesn’t feel indebted to the history of the genre as it relates to the camp and the excess of previous icons. There aren’t a lot of synthetic props or stylistic gaps between the lyrics of “Justice Now” and “Cage,” and yet they sound like they’re following the same formula we get started with in “The Night Train.” I love how patient some of the beats are, and more importantly, the way the ultimate narrative in the tracklist is assembled from one song to the next.
One of the more unfortunate things I’ve encountered over the last year of following indie rock has been a tremendous uptick in aesthetics overtaking a lyrical concept, but this isn’t true of anything in Justice Now. The surface-level elements in “Anything” and “Blues Before Sunrise” don’t feel excluded from the instrumental mood at all, but instead like an extension of what the verses are telling us at the start of the album. Progressive as it is, I can see fans of conventional alternative rock also appreciating the construction of the tracks, especially when Barista is diving towards a pop feel specifically.
Theatrics in rock music are making a comeback that no one could have expected just a couple of years ago, and while I appreciate a simple LP just as much as the next critic, the elaborate framework that we’re introduced to in Justice Now is something I could get used to in future releases bearing the Barista moniker in the byline. There’s undeniably a spark that this act is clinging to rather boldly here, and in due time I have a feeling this record is going to retrospectively sound like a mere glimpse into what Barista can do when operating at full capacity.
Claire Uebelacker