Calico City blur friendship, frustration and psychedelia on ‘Second in Line’

Friendship is rarely as straightforward as people pretend it is. On debut EP ‘Second in Line’, Australian six-piece Calico City spend six tracks pulling apart the jealousy, blurred boundaries, resentment and uncertainty that can creep into even the closest relationships.

Formed in high school, the band have spent the past year shaping a sound that moves freely between alternative rock, reggae and psychedelia. That range is finally given room to stretch across ‘Second in Line’, where the shifts in genre often mirror the changing emotional ground beneath the songs themselves.

Opening track ‘Gotta Go’ moves from reggae-heavy verses into driving rock choruses, while ‘Marigold & Cosmos’ takes a more psychedelic route, letting synths and bass drift through the dazed aftermath of separation before the frustration begins to surface. Elsewhere, ‘Back in the Before’ carries a looser, more carefree energy, before ‘Anomaly’ turns the temperature back up with biting guitars and a much sharper sense of confrontation.

Vocalists Brianne Reyes and Sienna Law share duties throughout the EP, giving these stories of friendship and fallout more than one perspective. As Reyes explains:

“’Second in Line’ explores the complexities and the grey areas around being friends, and the many ways a friendship can crumble or grow into something more. Each song dives down a different path of a relationship, the messy paths, the hot and heavy and the more mellow.”

That variety is what keeps the EP moving. ‘Ghost’ folds deep reggae grooves into psychedelic guitar before bursting open into heavier alternative rock, while closing track ‘How Could You Say It’ strips the band back to acoustic guitar, cello and close vocal harmonies, ending things on one of the record’s most exposed moments.

For a debut EP, ‘Second in Line’ covers a surprising amount of ground without losing sight of its central idea. Calico City understand that some of the most complicated relationships in life are not romantic at all, and their best moments arrive when they let that messiness shape the music around it.

‘Second in Line’ is out now.