Written by Megan Langley
Over the course of the past several months, Quiet Like A Thief released their first couple of singles, “Lak” and “Window Pain.” Fast forward a few months later, and the Boston & Long Island-based pop-punk group have returned with the release of their debut EP, “Through The Looking-Glass.”
The EP begins with “Quantum.” The thirty-six second introductory track sets the stage for the EP pretty well, bringing some reflective lyrics to start off the full release: “And through the looking glass I’ve seen all I’ve loved and I’ve lost / Minutes to miles, flashing right before my eyes.”
This seamlessly transitions into track two, “Travel In Time,” which immediately delivers catchy riffs and hooks where more instrumentation really kicks in. Similarly to the last track, the lyrics on this one are also very reflective, “Life’s kind of funny how it’s putting things into perspective, got me spinning all directions / Feels like every single second of the day, my eyes are gravitating to the time and I wish someone would help me come and fix this.”
The lyrical content in this song brings some interesting imagery as well, as the singer explains how he wishes he could “travel in time” to find the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Weird But True” is a little bit different in terms of its lyrical content, as it’s a bit more aggressive. With lines such as “You find pleasure burning everyone else down” the lyrics are directed towards a person who caused a lot of harm, expressing anger about the damage that’s been done.
On top of those lyrics, the instrumentals and the song’s energetic rhythm assist in getting that frustration across to the listener.
“Scatterbrain” contains some of the most memorable melodies and instrumentals on the whole EP. The dissonant notes and chords within the chorus makes that section stand out amongst not only the rest of the sections in the song, but also a lot of choruses heard in modern pop-punk.
The lyrics continue the conversation about mental health, as the singer explains the difficulty of dealing with mental health through metaphors in lines like “Hiding behind such a complex mind / Emotions like a rollercoaster” in one of the verses and “Scatterbrain, my mind keeps racing / Thoughts fill up the empty spaces / Feeling so lost in my head, can’t find a way out again” during that aforementioned chorus.
“Downward Spiral” concludes the EP, and much like the tracks before it, this one is also extremely catchy. The hook sung over the line “I was falling in a downward spiral” will definitely get stuck in listeners’ heads!
This track in particular shows a person admitting the mistakes they’ve made and apologizing to those they’ve hurt while in a bad place mentally with the lines “I’m not proud of how I acted or what I may have said to you and all my friends.”
Though it also shows them trying to make amends with those people and improve their life overall with the lines “Mistakes make you human / they don’t make you a bad person / it’s all about the progress that you make and the steps that you take."
Clocking in at just under eleven minutes total, “Through The Looking-Glass” is a short, but sweet EP. With extremely catchy melodies and instrumentals from beginning to end and lyrics that spark candid conversations about mental health, this EP is a fantastic release from Quiet Like A Thief.
“Through The Looking Glass” is available on all streaming platforms. You can keep up with Quiet Like A Thief on by following them on Twitter @quietlikeathief.
If you’ve checked out this EP, be sure to let us know what you think by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw!