Writers Corner: Where Buzz writers wax lyrical about their favourite current music
Words: Bo
“no shame for the ashes”
I remember being fourteen with my hands off the wheel. Some nights it feels like I’m the only one who does. Bleachers was born in those moments, to me – running from the crime scene like your head is on fire, praying for the moments lost. Everyone For 10 Minutes, the band’s fifth studio album, stands on the other side of that carnage, looking back with love and holding tight to everything you’ve built.
Jack Antonoff, frontman, can only be described as a veteran of the era. i_d describes him as having ‘the most focused run of successful music of any producer in the last decade’. In just the last year, he has collaborated with huge artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey, and Sabrina Carpenter.
He’s no stranger to tragedy – and it’s not something he’s never been afraid to put those formative moments at the centre of his art. Whether it was his baby sister dying of brain cancer when he was 18, the seemingly endless spiral that followed or his insistent protectiveness over his birth state, New Jersey. In 2024, he married actress Margaret Qually in his childhood home, a moment in time that this entire record paints in lived-in sincerity.
“glory to the ones on the edge”
The record is an exciting blend of classic sounds that defined the band’s New Jersey sound and fresh perspective. It isn’t afraid to smudge the line between exciting musicality and authentic sampling. The record’s second track and third single, ‘the van’ uses phrases from Blue Magic’s 1974 song ‘Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely’ liberally, and ‘we should talk’, the third song, last section, uses the iPhone ringtone to conclude the conversation the song has with itself. It’s in these moments that the record becomes more than just a collection of lines and lyrics, but an autobiography of everything that hangs heavy.
The lead single ‘you and forever’, reaffirms the band’s romantic optimism through screaming horns and pulsing strings – something the band would describe as ‘classic Bleachers shit’. On ‘dirty wedding dress’, a standout track, the band embraces its Americana influences. Bleachers’ promise of spouting grief through intense, jubilant musicality is not broken on these standout tracks, and the result is, once again fucking thrilling.
In particular, the vocal performances on this record may be the strongest in their discography. Antonoff bounces different deliveries on every song and section, showing his impressive range – the more dynamic tracks don’t let me breathe as I was repeatedly punched in the gut for trying to predict just how my faith would be shaken next. Don’t try to guess what the magician’s going to do, it’s rude. ‘Everyone For Ten Minutes’ takes ‘on the edge’ as a challenge, as a mission statement, and could give even the most soulless something to believe in.
“only my people can see me”
The band has not been quiet on where they stand in what they describe as “the end of a failed experiment”. Despite Antonoff reaching industry status, only seen by a select few in a generation, he constantly echoes the sentiments of Stonewall and No Kings. I was often aghast at his open disgust and contempt for the culture, establishment and the people he’s found himself surrounded by. On ‘take you out tonight’, he references audacious comments made about his wife, Qualley, on Twitter in lines such as “look me in the eyes and ask me again if I can fight’. A main theme on this record is a bitter determination to reject everything you don’t believe in – take the money and run, because no, they don’t know.
Nowhere did I feel this sentiment affirm me more than on ‘dirty wedding dress’, which details the chaos that was his wedding, where hundreds of ‘fans’ stormed the suburban Newark house. It’s an anthemic triumph over the dirt that stains his most vulnerable moments. In its final refrain, I could not help but holler the final lines, the promise, the conviction, because no, they don’t fucking know.
“you’re not at it alone”
I’ve spent my life scrambling through the rubble of something that can’t be called counter-culture anymore. I’ve spent my life forced to contend with past-prime dipshits who forgot what this was for. I’ve spent my whole fucking life trying to figure out what it means to be living in the epilogue. Everyone For Ten Minutes is what it means to be punk in a time where that word’s been sold and stripped for parts. It’s a fierce huddle, a scramble to keep the bad people out, an affirmation for those of us still standing.
The final song, ‘upstairs at els’ is the fruit of the labour. Dance party at the end of everything. The record spends its length taking a bat to everything we don’t want in our circle, and then gripping onto what’s left. The last lyrics mention the plaque, a testament to where Antonoff met Qualley years before – “That’s a little proof”. I have been left reeling from Everyone For Ten Minutes, and I cannot wait to see my people again in December, when their tour reaches London.
See you on the barricades.
Bo is a multidisciplinary creative artist studying production at ACM Clapham. They organise and produce the radio podcasts for the LOUD WOMEN collective, among others – archive issues of LOUD WOMEN radio, on MixCloud, include tutor and Buzz facilitator Ngaire Ruth’s radio specials