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Four-piece emo rock band Nearly Mine is one of very few emo bands in Ashland, Kentucky, yet they’re carving their own lane in the online indie music scene. Nearly Mine has 240 monthly listeners on Spotify, an impressive number for a young band who only has a handful of releases and not much readily available information. They’re finding an audience fast thanks to the nature of their music and the quality of their craft, and their 2022 EP “Gym Challenge” is a testament to that.
We start the EP with “To You, 2,000 Years From Now,” which kicks things off with a haunting, distorted guitar riff, complete with a beautiful harmonic. When the vocals come in, the song rapidly shifts into brighter territory while still maintaining a certain sadness to it. Heavy on a Y2K sound, they let the instrumental ride for a little bit, and the heavily reverbed vocals return. “In 2000 years when my body’s gone will you remember me?” Nearly Mine is opening with a huge existential question: who knows what humanity will look like in 2000 years, if it’s even still around? What about this legacy of art and music that bands like Nearly Mine are leaving behind? I dug this track, despite having a bit of a hard time fully hearing the vocals at certain points.
Segueing seamlessly from the previous song is ”And A Better Life,” and the vocalist appears to be singing to a lost lover. “Romanticizing the worst things that you could ever think of but when it comes to the problems we faced you were absent cause you couldn’t save us” is the perfect kind of melodrama for a small-town romance gone wrong. After this passage ends, the guitars come back in hot and heavy. “Show us yourself, take off the makeup” is a request just as bold as their guitars, but in the song “Okay? Okay.” we continue to dig deep into the aforementioned melodrama, a longtime staple of emo music and surely a pillar of this new brand of Kyova emo. Not much about this track is very memorable, but the keys are a nice touch towards the end of the track.
Again segueing seamlessly from the previous track is “Mount Coronet,” an experience of pure Rust Belt bliss. The brightness of the guitars and the synth coming through in the mix shine bright like a crazy diamond, and the lyrics that I interpreted to be about reaching out to a love interest give hope to the listener. As a lover of synthesizers, I have to reemphasize how much I love the synths that come through to complete the mix.
Onto “Best Wishes,” we start off with a slow and dark riff. “All you ever wanted to say was that I was never good enough, I’ll never be the same.” There’s that beautiful melancholy again. The songwriter for these tracks may truly be a troubled individual, but is finding beauty in their sadness. After a long intro, the guitars come in blazing, accompanied by a piano solo, before everything gets a little bit more subdued again, and the vocalist begins singing about getting drunk and drowning in his sorrows. After these lines are repeated a few times, each time decreasing in intensity, we end with a field recording featuring birds chirping and insects whirring.
This was an excellent experience during my first time listening to it and it exceeded my expectations in a really good way. Nearly Mine’s “Gym Challenge” is a promising start for this Ashland, Kentucky band with immense potential. The rawness of their music captures the essence of emo while adding a modern twist.Their emotive lyrics and catchy melodies leave a lasting impression, and the seamless transitions between tracks create a cohesive listening experience. The intensity of some of these tracks, and the emotions that they evoke are deep and guttural, and I can only imagine that Nearly Mine will get better in time as they cultivate their sound, image, and fanbase. Keep an eye on Nearly Mine; they are poised to make waves in the regional emo scene.