Massachusetts duo Boy Harsher enters a new chapter with the release of their latest album “Get Mean”. Subsequently marking their debut album through Atlantic Records. It is a record arriving at a particularly personal crossroads for Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller, following the collapse of their romantic relationship.
Rather than shying away from the complicated emotions that come with such a significant ending. “Get Mean” explores redemption, grief, heartbreak and the painful process of finding a way to heal, let go and begin again.
Boy Harsher have an impressive knack for creating atmosphere from minimal ingredients, with pulsing beats and immersive synth textures forming the backbone of their sound. On “Get Mean”, those familiar ingredients feel even more potent. Dark electronic rhythms meet Matthews’ breathy vocals, creating something dreamy, ethereal and wonderfully gothic. An alt-disco-pop landscape where melancholy and movement can happily occupy the same dancefloor.
Ahead of “The Heartbreak Tour”, the duo share a visual for “Faulty”, one of the album’s more musically upbeat moments. There is an irony in hearing such a danceable track emerge from such a painful chapter. However, perhaps that is exactly where Boy Harsher thrive.
The song circles the uncertainty of a relationship ending:
“Do you find me faulty, hardly or partly. Do you think I’m sorry. Softly. Don’t stop me. Will I know what hit me, hit me, hit me. Are we better off alone”
Directed by Boy Harsher with Owen Smith Clark, the video places people together in one dark, moody room. They are captured swaying and dancing almost as though caught somewhere between connection and isolation.
Matthews describes “Faulty” as a personal favourite, explaining that she actually wrote it around two years ago while staying near Astoria, beside the cold Pacific Ocean. For the visual, she wanted to revisit the same room and scope of their previous Calvin Klein advertisement tribute, this time adding dancing: “Alone + alone together”.
That phrase feels like it could almost be the emotional key to “Get Mean”. There is loneliness here, certainly, but also movement, release and the possibility of beginning again.
With “The Heartbreak Tour” now approaching, (including UK dates in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol), Boy Harsher are taking this deeply personal chapter out into the world. And with their debut feature film “The Lonely Woman” also in the works, (starring Chloë Sevigny, FKA twigs, Sturgill Simpson and Will Oldham), this new era already feels like it is opening into something much bigger.
For me, “Get Mean” is a reminder that heartbreak is usually messy, beautiful and strangely danceable. Sometimes you don’t heal by standing still. Sometimes you turn up the synths, find the beat and dance straight through the wreckage.
Now go grab a listen to “Get Mean” – here
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