Lowlives – Freaking Out
Release Date: 31st May 2024
Label: Spinefarm Records
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Genre: 90s Alternative, Rock, Grunge.
FFO: Silverchair, Teenage Wrist, Nirvana.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Lowlives are a strange case of the band’s debut album being surrounded by some air of expectation. The band’s banger of a debut EP, Burn Forever, came out a whole 6 years ago! And has had people – myself included – eager to see what comes next on a full length. It would also be impossible not to mention that vocalist Lee Downer was in one of this island’s most exciting metal bands in the 2010s, being the frontman of the often overlooked and vastly underappreciated, The Defiled, which also created a level of expectation for a new band to meet straight off the bat.
Freaking Out is a debut album, and it has all the hallmarks of a band finding their way. The title track kicks things off and prepares you for the grunge-infused throwbacks. Lowlives have been crafting for the past 6 years. The opening reminds me of when bands like Silverchair conquered the alternative scene, but this has the bite and production of modern bands. The opening run of 3 tracks gives you a good taste of the tricks the band will pull over the album’s 10 tracks. Liar is this chorus and flanger-infused, mid-tempo style-but hits you with a massive chorus and a rockstar style guitar solo for good measure, before Getting High On Being Low reverts back to the style of the opening track with fast-paced, easy to follow choruses, with thick textured riffs to boot.
The exciting thing about Freaking Out is that while it’s strongly pulling on those nineties grunge bands, it isn’t only serving up 10 songs of pure nostalgia. It has a level of grit that modern production allows, which stops it from ever feeling like it relies solely on throwbacks to reel you in.
While Swan Dive at first feels like it’s been ripped right out of the Alice In Chains playbook, it ends with an ambient, blizzard-like outro which is captivating and very different from everything else on the record. Looser sounds like it’s been ripped right out of a teen movie, with its bright sunshine-style vibes, before the band snaps back into a three song run of the stuff they do best.
Freaking Out, is at its best when the band dials up the pace and attacks their verses, dripping in attitude, before Downer takes the chorus up to another level. The choruses all over this album are incredibly catchy, at times almost having a nursery rhyme style approach, but they worm your way into your brain and will refuse to leave for days at a time, The type of choruses that you could see dominating festival stages over the summer and turning passers-by into new fans.
Just when you think the band has shown their hand, at the end of the album is Vertigo, where they bring out the acoustics and a violin to tug on those heartstrings even harder. A broody yet captivating closer shows another side to the band that hasn’t been captured anywhere else on the album. A layered vocal playing off an emotive violin lead is a nice change-up for the album and shows a level of emotion that the band might be able to tap into and express more of on the follow-up.
Lowlives have delivered a debut album that, while sounding like a band crafting their first full-length release, has also gone up against expectations and surpassed them. This album gives the band plenty of songs to fill out a set list with strong material and leaves you eager to see what they do next, which is all you can ask for from a band finding their way. Freaking Out is a fun and often energetic time and is full to the brim with choruses that you’ll be singing all summer. 
(4 / 5)
