Model Citizen EP by Meet Me @ The Alter | Album Review
As a child of the early 2000's, I am enjoying the emo/pop-punk revival that has shown up in modern music the past few years. It is refreshing to see artists like Willow Smith and Rina Sawayama take on and reinvent the sound in unique ways. In the rising crop of artists tackling this throwback sound is Meet Me @ The Alter. The group of black and latina women bring a welcomed diversity to the historically white and mostly male genre. The group have fought for their place in the genre.
“We would have to play with the local bands, but they’re all white dudes who didn’t really want us there… They were never explicit about it, but you can just tell. So it isn’t fun. But at the same time, we had to go through it for it to pay off the way that it did… We knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be easy… But we accepted that we have to take the harder way, so that the 12-year-old black girl looking up to us can do it the easy way.”
The trio signed with Fueled by Ramen (Paramore, Fall Out Boy, & Twenty One Pilots) and released their first EP Model Citizen in 2021.
We open the project up on “Feel A Thing”. We fade in from the classic Nintendo arcade sounds into a fury of bright sweet pop punk. Vocalist Edith Victoria’s clean yet biting delivery brings me right back to high school listening to bands like Paramore and Fall Out Boy. On the song’s meaning, the band told Consequence:
“The story starts with acknowledging that you don’t really feel like yourself or feel anything at all. There has to be self-awareness in any form of personal growth, and that’s really where things have to start in order for you to make a change in your life.”
Téa and Edith’s lyrics wonderfully capture the struggle and stress of finding yourself at the eve of adulthood, “I’ve been holding my breath/ To keep in all that’s left/ I should be hurting/ But I can’t feel a thing/ It might be all the stress/ At least that’s my best guess.”
“Mapped Out” is a much more furious track. Ada Juarez’s blitz of drums and Téa Campbell prickly guitar will get your head banging. This blitz of sound works well against the confusion and uncertainty the lyrics provide on this new place they are in. This fear of the unknown, “How did I get here? It’s not mapped out/ Can I find my own way out?/ Hate to say that I’m lost right now/ I gotta keep searching,” could be anything from getting into a new job/school and feeling overwhelmed to even a new relationship that you haven’t found your footing in. “Brighter Days (Are Before Us)” is a great sugary pop punk single. Victoria’s vocals sound so good over the colorful fury of guitar and drums. I get Fefe Dobson meets Paramore vibes from this song. Lyrically, the song affirmation to get your head up through the mire as better things will come from your effort, “Can’t give up now ’cause I know all the bad will fade away/ It will fade away/ Is it just luck or is the future looking kind of great?” It’s an incredibly catchy song that will get you moving for sure.
“Now or Never” is the most Paramore forward song. I heard a clear inspiration from “That’s What You Get” off of Riot!. On the meaning of the song, the band told Consequence:
“Whether it be platonic or romantic, love is a part of life. Sometimes people start to part ways, and you have to decide if you’ll try to make the relationship work or if you’ll just move on. ‘Now or Never’ is about asking the question, ‘Are we going to make this work?’”
The lines, “It’s silly I even think you see why I’m suffering/ I thought I knew you well/ Your smell’s on my pillowcase/ I still set your dinner plate/ This only gets harder, doesn’t it??,” bring to mind the dissolution of young love and the dire urge to keep that fire burning.
By the time we have made it to “Never Gonna Change” I am kind of wanting a little more variety sonically. I do appreciate the opening build up to eruption of sound. The song does well to call out bad habits and actions that keep us stuck. Edith’s stance in the song has her conflicted by the fear of change but the need to move past her comfort zone and forces of habit, “I’ve gotta face myself/ To save my mental health/ But I’m not/ Ready yet, I can tell.” Something that helped keep the song for feeling a little too similar to the rest is the more relaxed bridge that falls more in line with a pop tone. We end out the project with “Wake Up”. This also sounds a lot like some of Paramore’s earliest releases. I appreciate the lyric progression from the last song into this final track:
“The final track on the EP is about not accepting that you’re never gonna change and taking those right steps to start bettering yourself.”
The censoring of “shit” on the opening verse gave me a chuckle as it totally brought me back to the early 2000s where the bleep was common tactic to skirt around the parental advisory. The inclusion of synths it a welcomed addition to the song giving it a little electronic flair.
I love seeing diversity in a very traditionally white genre. Edith, Téa, and Ava have crafted a great blend of nostalgic 2000's pop-punk. They group also released an acoustic EP to concede with this project. I suggest listening to both to get the full breadth of the group’s talent. I will say I did want a little more variety in this grouping of songs. I think a full album with a few ballads and a mixture of sounds would be great to wade off the stagnation. That said, I really enjoyed the songs Meet Me @ The Alter had crafted. I am glad to see the group getting traction through performing at Lollipalooza and opening for Green Day. My favorites:
- “Feel A Thing”
- “Brighter Days (Are Before Us)”
- “Now or Never”
My overall rating: 6.0 out of 10.
Sources:
