Please 2003 releases “1999 Red Balloons” in preparation for upcoming EP.

Boston based band Please 2003 released their second single “1999 Red Ballons” on July 18 in preparation for their debut EP “I Live With My Dad”, which will be out this august.

We first became familiar with Please 2003 back in April when they released their first ever song, “Rainbow Roadhead” (see our review on it here) — and we’ve quickly become big fans.

Please 2003 has already mastered feeling of melancholy that makes emo music hit so close to home. With lyrics like “It’s not fair / I’m low then I’m high / but I wanna feel / alright all the time”, lead singer Jake Flaherty puts an all too familiar feeling into words. There’s a specific kind of dread that comes with the highs and lows of mental health — often times the highs are soured by the fear another crash will follow soon after.

Flaherty has spoken in depth about his struggles with mental health both in the bands lyricism and on social media, And the band has a very specific way of doing so. While the content is heavy, the song is not a sad song. It’s much more numb, frustrated, and exhausted; feelings that come along with mental illness that are much harder to portray successfully.

The part of the song that hit especially hard for us is the bridge where the instruments build up to Flaherty yelling “why can’t I be steady? / I try to be steady”. With a few simple sentences Please 2003 has driven home just how debilitating it is to want things to get better, to want things in life to level out, and have no idea how to make that happen.

Instrumentally the band is incredibly reminiscent of any good Midwest emo song we could name. Between the crisp guitar tones, and the drum that drives the song along, the band is clearly very talented, and we are excited to review their EP when the time time comes!

Listen HERE