When Fredericton’s Kill Chicago released their album The Fix in 2019, it came with the assumption that the band had solidified their sound with their sophomore effort. Today, with the release of Kill Chicago’s new EP, The Rest, we now know that The Fix was just easing us in.
“The Rest comes from a place of uncertainty,” explains frontman Greg Webber, comparing the band’s most recent release to their two previous albums. “The Grey was about compromise, The Fix was about constant self-improvement (though not always the good kind), and The Rest is about being forced to sit still.”
The last two years of irregular performances have left their mark on the band. Not only does the album offer front-row seats to the evolution of Kill Chicago in that time apart, but we are now seeing the impact of external forces on the band or, rather, the lack thereof. While Kill Chicago had set aside a handful of tracks that didn’t quite fit their vision for The Fix, by the time they appear on The Rest, they’ve undergone a refinement process that the band has hitherto been unfamiliar with: crafting them in isolation without the immediate feedback and influence of a crowd.
“It’s hard to tell if the rest almost killed us or gave us exactly what we needed,” says Webber. “We always planned on making a second release out of the material we had. We had more tracks than we needed and we actually kept some of what we thought were our best songs for this release.”
The result of working in relative isolation has Webber skewing to the sentimental. Similar to what we heard on The Fix—featuring the band’s first real foray towards more intimate tracks like “Flying Home” and “Pull Over,” both of which stood out as real gems on the album—The Rest takes a crack at something a little more vulnerable than the band’s bread and butter of angry blue-collar protest anthems.
The shift is immediately visible with the opening track “Surrounded by Love.” It’s almost mantric in its simplicity and closes out with the briefest of choral harmonies.
“The Rest gave us the break from audiences to create without their input,” explains Webber. “Songs like ‘Surrounded by Love’ were too far from where we were as a band to put as a follow-up to The Grey, so we held some back to use later after our audience became more adjusted to some tracks on the fix that expanded our sound. Those tracks go even further, I think.
“For this record, we really felt ‘let’s not think about what we’ve done before, let’s write what excites us and just go with it’,” says Webber. “I get bored easily and I need things to change. Every band I’ve fallen in love with changes from album to album: The Clash, Jimmy Eat World, Radiohead, The Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, Stereophonics, Alabama Shakes, Black Keys, Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello.”
“Wishbook” might dive right back into a delicious groove that absolutely pops thanks to the skills mixer/master Don Levandier (The Motorleague), but rather than depending fully on that—though they could—Webber uses the opportunity to really engage us with lyrics that paint a very richly complex picture and still demand that a frenzied bar crowd shout them back.
And that’s when we arrive at the meat of the album. Kill Chicago have always been able to expertly work a crowd, and they know their strength lies in that energy. “What Doesn’t Kill You,” “Dear John,” and “Unthaw” might get subtly split between genres but, at their core, each song is still about taking it to 11. It’s no challenge to imagine these songs being belted out with Webber sweating over the microphone and Dillon Anthony having worked himself up to the point of practically standing over his Nord keyboard. Even when Webber is pulling out some profound lyrics on “Dear John,” they’re delivered with an intensity designed to leave the floor sticky with beer.
“There’s a punk tune, an Americana tune, trash blues, electronic tune, a dance post-punk jam, and an intimate songwriter tune. A couple of rock bangers and there you go,” says Webber, laying out a rough picture of the album’s structure.
“I’m always very aware that I’m playing for a crowd. I put myself in their shoes and I get bored easily when I watch live music. So, I try to switch the tempo, key, instruments, and genre as often as I can. That’s why we have Chill Chicago also; always trying to reach new audiences and musical styles. I guess that happens with a degree in music, your ears get pretty wide.”
As much as all of that works in a venue—with bodies packed against the stage and primed to be tossed about by some soundwaves—Kill Chicago prove, once again, that where they really excel is somewhere outside of their comfort zone. It’s when they let things get real quiet, sing about the things that are fueled by more than frustration, and let Matte Robinson fiddle around on trumpet or, in the case of “I Meant to Call,” let Alan Jefferies have a go with a mandolin.
“My best friend set himself on fire, I found out from some girl on Twitter, you never know it’s the last time till it’s the last time,” sings Webber, instantly gutting anyone within hearing range with just the first couple lines of the song.
“I Meant to Call” is a song about balancing the dichotomies of life; some days you win and, some days, you lose, but dealt with in the extremes. Unfortunately, life is like that sometimes, but Webber is singing from experience and its poignancy really comes through in a way that’s often easy to overlook in many Kill Chicago songs when the point gets drowned out in all the things that make a bar crowd jump up and down.
Kill Chicago goes for diversity on The Rest and, knowing their audience, it’s really hard to fault them for that. The album branches out in new directions and the individual songs shine in all the departments that Kill Chicago really need them to shine. It’s genuinely a fun album with some big tracks. Still, knowing what the band is capable of almost makes it seem as if Webber is doing himself a disservice as a songwriter.
Then again, that’s what they have Chill Chicago for.