Soundcloud’s favorite boy band Misery Club has released their second EP, Lost Inside the Night. A lamenting project on failed relationships, this five-track release realizes the full potential of a collaboration between some of the scene’s most unique and prolific artists. Formed by vocalists Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Lil Zubin, Fantasy Camp and Jon Simmons, as well as producers Nedarb and Foxwedding in 2018, Misery Club is a supergroup of sorts, intent on airing their heartbreak to all who will listen. While their first EP Club Misery created space for hopeful moments in songs like “Left Side” and “Bad Mood,” Lost Inside the Night fails to find any light in the darkness.
The project opens with “Breakthrough,” a deceptively upbeat and melodic track produced by Foxwedding. The first track on the EP sets the stage for a relationship fraught with emotional turmoil. Fantasy Camp cites a breakdown of communication in his verse and wonders “why you’re always on your phone, and why you’re so afraid to be alone,” while Wicca Phase returns to the ideas that have plagued his own solo music for the past decade. “I’m thinking about how little time I spend at home,” he sings, “and how I feel your presence in everything…” Physical distance makes no difference; whether near or far, genuine connection is difficult to maintain.
Things get even more dire on the next track, “Knife.” Released as a single earlier this year — Misery Club’s fifth release as a group — “Knife” turns the emotional pain of a toxic relationship into a physical one. Here, it is the constant return to a relationship destined to crumble that is its own kind of misery. Fantasy Camp hints at the frustration of being constantly let down by a partner when he sings, “I put faith in you once and regretted it twice.” Jon Simmons’ wistful verse encourages an unnamed partner to “Hit me with your blade again. Cut open my chest to see there’s nothing left.” Sometimes, Simmons tells us, we are left feeling like empty shells in the wake of a relationship gone south. Drained of every ounce of emotional energy, all we are is hollow. Foxwedding’s melancholic, guitar-based melody is paced by its own tick-tocking metronome — an audible account of the passing of time as Misery Club returns again and again to an unsustainable love.
“Change 4 Love” follows but marks a departure from the dejected tone of the previous track. A collaborative effort between both Misery Club producers, this buoyant chime-driven track features deep and droning bass beats that bring the song back down to earth. Fantasy Camp laments a hot-and-cold relationship in his verse: “Maybe we were never meant to make it, baby. I can’t even get a conversation lately. One second you love me, next second you hate me.”
The EP closes with the title track “Lost Inside the Night” — an ominous and reverberating piano-based song, layered with despair despite the fast, percussive rhythms that underlie the track. A kind of conclusion to the revelations Misery Club has made over the course of the EP, this song’s refrain chastises, “I should have known not to let you in.” What good can come, this song begs, from a relationship that is constantly imploding? At what point does the heartache of reliving the same pain finally sink in enough to bring about a permanent end? Lil Zubin likens this pain to a thunderstorm of the mind, an unceasing barrage of negativity. “Thoughts of you arise, caused a heavy downpour and the clouds inside my mind,” he sings. The reference here to his own recent EP Heavy Downpour is hard to ignore, especially given that it is drenched in a similar morose attitude toward relationships. What Misery Club finds in Lost Inside the Night is not hope for change and reconnection, but despair in the hopelessness of relationships not meant to be.
With this second EP, Misery Club has again proven that their own unique brand of egalitarian collaboration can be successful in creating a cohesive project. Lost Inside the Night synthesizes a variety of voices and styles into one that leaves listeners with nuanced, emotionally-charged and relatable experiences of relationship turbulence. And though this project doesn’t end on a particularly encouraging note, its palpable honesty and passion can awaken the heartsick in everyone.