by Caroline Nieto (@caroline.nieto)
In their June 2024 profile, Stereogum described Water From Your Eyes as “a weird band for weird times.” It only takes a quick browse through their discography to see that they’re right. The duo, consisting of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown, doesn’t fit into a clean genre, and incorporates elements of pop, new wave, folk, and indie rock. Brown is lauded for their unpolished voice, a speak-singing hybrid reminiscent of anti-folk artists like Kimya Dawson. While Brown writes the lyrics, Amos creates the instrumentation, an eclectic blend of the band’s influences, among listed are Ween, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the paintings of Mark Rothko. Their creative range is on display on their 2023 album, Everything’s Crushed, which includes electronic powerhouse “Barley” and the candid “14.” Their 2024 EP of covers, MP3 Player 1, portrays an erratic picture of the band’s identity when they’re not the writers, instead putting their style on display.
The first track, a cover of Chumbawamba’s “The Good Ship Lifestyle” sounds like it came straight from the Water From Your Eyes catalog. The intense, industrial percussion and absurd lyrics summon a typical melding of Brown’s and Amos’ collaborative power. The song has Brown adopt the role of the self-elected captain, chanting a shipping forecast in their typical blasé tone. A tinny synth sound and fast paced drum line keep the song from feeling comfortable—there’s an air of suspense and possibility, like an ocean voyage without a map. This feeling dispels with the chorus, when a danceable rock beat underlines Brown’s command to “Steer a course/a course for nowhere.” Everything builds to the song’s ending, which feels like stumbling into a house show for a band you don’t know—a surreal, euphoric experience of head banging and shouting back words you just learned.
The second track is an uptempo reimagining of Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Where Adele’s song announces its tempo through an arpeggiated piano line, the cover takes to a drum set, trading the piano for a clean guitar sound. The emphasis on rhythm from Amos’ instrumentation makes clear some lyrical phrasings that slide by in the Adele version. Brown’s vocal performance has a bratty attitude, making the song feel more tongue-in-cheek than remorseful. It seems closer to a song by The Strokes—more like an after-school break up song than a heartbreaker. On the titular lyric, “Never mind, I’ll find someone like you,” Brown leans into “never mind,” with a pithiness that turns “Someone like you” into “Someone like you.” When the bridge comes in, a dizzy lead guitar underlines Brown’s vocals, creating a counter melody that’s as much an earworm as the rest of the song. After “The Good Ship Lifestyle,” this cover reveals a different side of Water From Your Eyes—a more spunky, casual sound punctuated by an eye roll.
Next comes a cover of Al Green’s “Tired of Being Alone,” which Brown described as a “kill your idols” situation, where the fun of making the song outweighed the pressure of doing it justice. However, the song does feel true to the original, since everything Brown sings drips with earnesty. The band stays true to their form in the musical styling, replacing Green’s horns with an electric piano and employing a muted drum set.
They stick the landing with the fourth and final track, a cover of Third Eye Blind’s “Motorcycle Drive By.” From the beginning, Amos makes his mark on the orchestrations, replacing the original’s acoustic guitar with strings and a vibraphone. The original version is very distinctly a 2000s alternative rock song, with Stephan Jenkins’ gritty voice sealing the deal. With the added electronic elements of the cover, the song floats outside of this genre—there are still significant rock elements, but the added moments of softness make the song a cinematic experience. Soundscapes layer on top of each other, a drum machine comes pulsing through, and a low guitar creeps in. On top of this, the song seems built for Rachel Brown to sing, with each word as devastating as the next. The raw quality of their voice releases a vulnerability in the already sober lyrics, adding an extra punch to, “I could never have you/I knew that before you did.” On the song’s instrumental break, everything breaks free, the band’s distinct crunchy guitar taking the lead. There’s a feeling of having come out on the other side of pain, a liberation in the disarray. The care for the original song is clear from the performance—in fact, every song glows with the appreciation of good music. Water From Your Eyes plans to release more cover projects in the future, and as with MP3 Player 1, they can’t go wrong with their favorites.