Really Great: Be The Light On
Really Great
Be The Light On
(1/31/25, Disposable America)
Melancholy is a thorny crown, and it’s one we’d rather others wear besides ourselves. But the hard times come for us all eventually. When they do, you could do worse than seeking some lovely commiseration in the music and musings of Really Great’s sophomore album Be The Light On. It’s an uptempo indie rock popper that does the emotional handwringing thing, so you don’t have to.
The good news is that suffering in art is of a different order than suffering in life. In art, there’s always the prospect of catharsis, a sweet release. Artist and audience alike can roleplay misery before hitting the safety ejection button in the final act. The musician behind the moniker, Owen Harrelson, has been perfecting this trick at least as far back as their debut album So Far, No Good.
Be The Light On renews Harrelson’s membership among the melancholy, while exhibiting an emotionally-layered approach that pushes outside the sadness sandbox.
Opening track “Story” sets the tone as a statement of purpose. There are lyrical notes of self-deprecation – nearly self-degradation – followed by an indie rock resolution to press on into the impossible. The brooding protagonist overcomes some (not all) self doubt to declare “I have to try.”
Try what, exactly? It’s not clear. But if the alternative is imploding into an effluvium of existential despair, then we’re clearly hitting some therapeutic milestones. The ecstatic doodlings of Jake Cardinal on lead guitar, which guide the protagonist through the gloom like Death from the Bill & Ted series, expose what the lyrics conceal at face value. Namely, there is a great amount of joy embedded in the songs on this album.
Really Great toys with this sneaky emotional counterpoint throughout the album. Whether it’s the effervescent pop punk of “Streetlight,” the chirpy strumming of “Way Out,” or the two-wheel roadtripping thrills of “Ride,” the emotional trajectory points – against all odds – upward. “Rescue From Without” pairs a giddy rhythm, which wouldn’t be out of place on a Caribbean booze cruise, with lyrics like “tried my best, not good enough / i fucked it up.” Typical.
The lead single “Skateboard Amp” rips. Harrelson shouts out Strange Ranger’s Remembering the Rockets as an influence in the Bandcamp liner notes. The comparison is helpful for context, and you’ll hear the echo of the New York band’s 2019 album in the mix. The pre-pandemic innocence, emo wash of lyrics, the tempo’s reliable forward march. Really Great’s single distinguishes itself, though, with a more restricted pop palette. Cardinal’s lead guitar squeals like a piglet on holiday, laying down strong licks that paint the subject in neon shades of bold chiaroscuro.
“Skateboard Amp” is not a subtle ditty, neither in composition nor execution. But it’s effective. And it reveals here, as elsewhere on Be The Light On, how well Really Great understands how to maneuver its puzzle pieces into a coherent musical picture.
For all the gloomy vamping, Really Great sees a light at the end of the tunnel. The closer “The Champion of Things Becoming” confirms a new truth: “and now i see the sunlight on the darkest of days.” Be The Light On is not about escaping that tunnel of despair as an accomplished fact. It’s about the precious moment when you first realize that escape is possible. All of this portends many difficult days still lie ahead. But the promise of escape is one step forward into the light, which, last time I checked, was better than two steps back into the darkness.
Really Great
Melancholy is a thorny crown.