“Something Happened” is an exciting rocker from Smart Objects, a Nashville-based band led by Benjamin A. Harper. Punchy vocals emit lyrical yearning for positive change, accompanied by perky guitar lines and peppy rhythms; there’s a fun aesthetic likeness to acts like Spoon and Field Music, in the accessibly hooky rock approach. The band’s reverence for classics like Bowie, XTC, and Talking Heads are also worn proudly.
Representing the first of four new tracks comprising the band’s new summer EP, “Something Happened” takes inspiration from the band’s support for the Me Too movement. The suave initial vocals glide into a passionate rise, the “about to hit the wall,” bridge exciting. A roaring guitar-fronted segment approaches the two-minute turn with ardent invigoration, leading to a fantastic vocal hook thereafter, traversing seamlessly into the central chorus’ replay-inducing reprisal. “Something Happened” indeed, and it’s evident Smart Objects are band worth paying close attention to.
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This track and others featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of August 2022’ Spotify playlist.
The track is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Emerging Indie Rock.
