“In a Weird Way” is the latest release by Koalra, an excellent trio now based in Portland, Oregon. It’s their first piece of work in 2025, arriving as an adequate follow-up of “Disasterclass,” a critically acclaimed full-length album released last year that you should also check out as soon as possible. Koalra is one of those bands whose music immediately grabs you by the collar and refuses to let go long after it ends. That’s the case with “In A Weird Way,” a song that vividly showcases their dedication to the craft. With many different yet complementary music genres involved, they craft music that tackles all the senses and forces listeners to contemplate. Perhaps post-punk comes to mind first, but you’ll unquestionably notice how some of the finest sonic ingredients borrowed from shoegaze, noise rock, garage, alternative, and indie found their way into this sonic equation. They expertly merge all these sonic ingredients, constructing an ambiance that simultaneously resonates with nostalgia yet showcases their fresh, unique, innovative, modern, luxuriant sound. They poured heart and soul while writing, composing, arranging, and producing their latest single, so the natural progression of this already incredible band is more than evident in each segment. Therefore, these experimentations with many different styles and approaches resulted in a perfect track that will immediately resonate with the crowd.
From the onset, it becomes apparent that they invested so much time and effort while building the structure of the song. “In a Weird Way” arrives with many profoundly detailed segments, garnered with many brilliant ideas and marvelous musicianship. Each vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuver has its place and purpose in this equation, creating a majestic ambiance that instantly wraps around the listening apparatus. You’ll notice how guitars play a significant role here, as they shape a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. The generous servings of distortion create that hypnotic, addictive, irresistible raw, abrasive, gritty sound yet melodies are vividly hearable in the mix. They also included some studio reverb effects, so all these guitar works arrive with an echoic, cave-a-like sound that perfectly suits other instruments and adds more complexity to an already intricate structure. The comprehensive collection of chord progressions, riffs, harmonies, melodies, and themes continuously lurks around, keeping listeners engaged from scratch to finish. In the meantime, the soulful, passionate, sincere, confident, emotional, powerful vocal performance elevates all these orchestrations to new heights, commands attention, and guides the listening apparatus with such precision and finesse. You’ll hear how all these vocal harmonies seamlessly glide over low, mid, and high notes, decorating everything these experienced musicians intended to achieve with their latest composition. Like guitars, these vocal layers are also drenched in decent amounts of studio reverb yet they do not overwhelm guitars at all.
There are powerful low-ends beneath all these instrumentations, offering more than necessary support to all the guitar works. They continuously levitate between gritty and warm sound, perfectly suiting those reverby layers. You’ll notice how these basslines rumble beneath, providing heftiness, clearness, and deepness without overpowering guitars. Koalra blended these two instruments together, so they articulate harmoniously, shaping a calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal yet raw and abrasive ambiance. In the meantime, the exceptional drumming performance keeps all these instrumentations in line while dictating groove and tempo with moderate, well-accentuated, tastefully assembled, and flawlessly performed beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. These rhythmic sequences bring more details to this song, and you’ll notice how each hit of the snare, kick of the bass drum, and splash over the cymbal plays an important role here. Each instrument has its place and purpose here and Koalra invested heart and soul while working on it.
“In a Weird Way” is such an incredible post-punk track that vividly showcases all the brilliance of this trio. Koalra never ceases to amaze with their ideas, and this particular track proves their music becomes even more exciting, innovative, and progressive with each new release. That’s the case with “In a Weird Way,” a song that will instantly become a staple on your playlist. If you’re looking for some fresh post-punk music where experience, knowledge, and skills meet brilliant ideas and outstanding musicianship, then “In a Weird Way” is a perfect track for you. The single is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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