Three Brothers, Making Noise

Radkey is an independent punk trio from St. Joseph, Missouri. Their most recent EP, Devil Fruit, is comprised of four songs: “Start Freaking Out,” “Little Man,” “Overwhelmed” and “Romance Dawn.” All four of the songs sound very similar, and seem to be mainly comprised of four chords. The three brothers independently produced one previous EP, Cat and Mouse, which is slightly more focused than Devil Fruit. However, this new EP feels as though the boys’ only intention was to make an album at any cost, rather than write songs that have a deeper meaning.

The song “Romance Dawn,” for instance, sounds like one large chorus. The vocals, unlike many other punk bands, are perfectly clear. Therefore, the listener can easily understand that vocalist Dee is simply repeating “Hey hey now, things are burning up” over and over again. Yes, that is virtually the only lyric of that song, with a few minor alterations here and there– the song comes in at 4:28 minutes. “Little Man” is also highly repetitive; however, in this song not every phrase is the same. This song has an instrumental section as well, although the guitar solo is simply an echo of the vocal line, which seems to be a theme throughout all four of the songs.

Overall, these guys still seem to be finding their footing, and it’s fairly clear why they’re currently independent. At this point, the title of the third track on this EP seems to be where we all stand, and that’s “Overwhelmed.” That goes for both the listener, because it’s unclear as to what all of the noise is supposed to mean, and the band as well, because it feels as though they couldn’t quite handle what they were trying to accomplish.