Peer Pleasure – Rooms (2025)
Peer Pleasure’s new single, ‘Rooms’, is a haunting rumpus, where reflective lyrics craft lasting scenes of personal struggle.
The track is a perfect blend of chilliness and soul. Lead singer Brandon Murphy’s collage-style writing pieces together philosophy, sarcasm, and anecdotes in regard to addiction, over a fusion of country and funk. The track’s instrumentation is bare but moving, with Jeff Miller’s snappy drumming, a guitar riff on the hunt, and Eric Murphy’s thumping bass aiding the forward momentum. Brandon Murphy begins with, “Every prayer I ever said evaporated off my tongue, as fast as I said it”, heard in a ghoulish baritone. Over the course of the song, Murphy’s vocals become affecting as he sings/ howls his lyrics, ramping up the tune. As the song progresses, the riff and beat don’t change, but in their circularity, ‘Rooms’ becomes hypnotic. The sparseness in structure allows for Murphy’s direct lines like, “’Streets for Breakfast’ is not a lifestyle, it’s a death sentence”, to be memorable.
The band from Ireland recorded this song in Brooklyn, New York, during downtime after playing the New Colossus Festival. Whenever the chorus bleeds in, the world of ‘Rooms’ feels grand. The song’s soundscape expands when the rest of the band provides distortion, delays, and the freaking of frequencies, along with Miller’s hounding on the toms and cymbals. Here, Murphy howls, “Will you still pray for me/when I can’t pray for me?” The chorus sounds like when you’ve made it to an NYC rooftop and get a feeling of openness when the city’s vastness is revealed.
‘Rooms’ is a journey both musically and thematically. In the second half, we get Murphy’s wishes for his future, like, “I want to go out the same way Tommy Cooper did.” The singer sounds as if he’s ready to draw up a will. But what makes ‘Rooms’ enjoyable is the music tethered to his vulnerability.
We come back down to another space from the rooftops, when the song transitions to Death Grips-esque boom-bap and distortion. Murphy recounts an intense dilemma. Peer Pleasure leaves the dark beat banging on. A great cliffhanger to keep us coming back for more from this band.
Find out more about Peer Pleasure on their Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, YouTube and Spotify.
Listen to more post-punk music on The Other Side Reviews Post Punk playlist:
