Buddie - Agitator (2023)

After the release of debut LP Diving in 2020, Philadelphia native Dan Forrest rushed his songwriting project Buddie back into the studio to record as much new material as possible. There was good reason for the haste. Forrest had accepted a place in grad school in Vancouver, leaving bandmates behind and Buddie’s future more than a little uncertain. There, they laid down almost twenty new songs in a blaze of productivity, in what would either be the project’s swansong or the start of a new chapter.

Luckily it wasn’t the end. Four of the new songs became Transplant, a short EP released on Crafted Sounds late last year. What we described in a review as “a record that deals with the prospect of moving across the continent, as well as the wider issues that affected everyone from 2020 onwards,” the EP served to announce a newly-assembled Buddie on the other side of the continent, where they have played festivals, live radio sessions and even opened for Built to Spill.

Now Buddie are back with their sophomore LP, Agitator. Again released on Crafted Sounds, Agitator finds Forrest and co. stronger than ever, an album the label describe as “packed full of earworm choruses, ‘loud-quiet-loud,’ bubblegrunge, and 90s influenced indie rock.” Opener ‘Break of the Sun’ displays almost all of these qualities immediately, opening with patient guitar and vocals that ebb and flow before kicking up a gear at the midpoint into a hefty rock song. ‘Game of Global Consequence’ follows suit, holding back the drums for a cathartic drop after the first verse, while ‘Backwards Beyond’ leans toward pop punk with its bouncy percussion and propulsive chorus.

But, as with previous releases, Agitator is far more than a simple slice of fun and cathartic indie rock. Forrest has always had a wide thematic scope in his songwriting and this record is no different. Crafted Sounds say the album “revolve[s] around healthy communication, trust, anxiety, living in the moment, sense of place, joy in resistance, growth, change, dystopia, classism, mutual aid,” and Buddie explore this tangled web of interconnected themes with a mixture of righteous anger, uneasy disquiet and tender empathy.

Single ‘Class Warfare’ is a good example, both a searing indictment of the actions of powerful nations and a reminder that even the biggest, most institutionalised problems can be overcome. “View from the peak / Clouds float underneath,” he sings in the closing lines, “Winds will blow them away,” hinting that a better, more equal society is possible. “In ‘Class Warfare’, I grapple with the thought of imperialist nations, like the US, Canada, the UK, always putting themselves first, to the detriment of everyone else… from hoarding COVID-19 vaccines to the militarization of police,” Forrest describes. “I aim to draw attention to these problems, but end the song in resolve, trusting that learning, activism, mutual aid, and prefiguration (creating pieces of the society you want) can blow [the problems] away.”

Perhaps the biggest strength of Agitator is how it blends these big social issues with smaller, individual ones, shifting from widescreen views of the world at large to something decidedly more personal. A song Forrest says “is about reassuring someone that you’ll always be there, willing to learn, grow, and change with them,” ‘We’ll Never Break’ sits at the latter end of the spectrum, Great Grandpa’s Al Menne providing harmonizing vocals in what’s a moment of warm reassurance wrapped up in a crunchy indie rock exterior.

Penultimate track ‘Labyrinth’ is similarly intimate, challenging the prevailing societal notion of success in favour of something deeper and more substantial. As Forrest describes:

“Labyrinth” is about breaking away from the dominant western views of ‘the good life’ and embracing ideals that run counter. Where so much of our culture incentives wealth and material consumption, eurocentric ideals of aesthetics, fast-paced lifestyles, constant work, and high achievement, I hope to share my vision of ‘the good life’—where my happiness and fulfillment come from: love, friendship, and community, disconnecting from the overstimulation and embracing the present, finding serenity, and living sustainably.”