onlydigitally - Track Star EP

indie

independent

2024

onlydigitally’s debut EP Track Star sounds comfortable and lived-in, like the duo have been playing these songs for a long time together.

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Track Star‘s cover looks like a photo I have dozens of on my phone: taken from the passenger seat of a moving car, trying to capture something, but it’s not at all clear what that something is. It’s blurry and there’s no clear focal point. What were they trying to capture?

Maybe it’s mood. Maybe it’s just a symbol of simplicity, of small-town living, small-town problems and dreams of getting away. If that’s what it is, then it perfectly matches the six songs on onlydigitally‘s debut EP.

The first song I heard from the band was “Old Dog” above, and it’s been in regular rotation since the first listen. The melancholy, broken vocal scratches an old itch, like a song from years ago, long forgotten. The refrain over the spoken “Don’t worry, he’s all bark no bite” is a perfect earworm.

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onlydigitally is made up of Thien An Nguyen and Alejandro Melero from Houston, Texas, and there’s not much else to know just yet. The songs on Track Star are all built around Nguyen’s humble, warm vocal, which at various times evokes Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, and Phoebe Bridgers. She’s accompanied by a simple guitar/bass/drum arrangement, and the occasional banjo, steel guitar, and on the opener of the record, a grungy, distorted electric guitar.

If ‘old dog’ is the heart of the record, ‘shadow’ is the soul. It’s sparsely arranged, built around the lyric “I don’t think I have another fight in me”, maybe reminiscent of The Weakerthans.

Track Star closes on “dumb dog”, which isn’t about a dog at all, really. The banjo comes out for a reprise, and there’s a coda at the end of it that gives the record its name: “Track Star, you can only run so far“

Even though it’s the first release from onlydigitally, Track Star sounds comfortable and lived-in, like the duo have been playing these songs for a long time together, and hopefully they’ll continue for some time yet.