HOLDEN CAULFIELD VS. THE WORLD

Location: Zagreb, Serbia

Year active: 2023 - ?????

Members: ?????

Related bands: Biokill, Bojack Horseman Apologism Club, Spring Break,

FFO: Angel Garden, just friends., your arms are my cocoon, Nayru

Remember Spring Break? Well, here’s another project from the same person—though the revelation of it might surprise you.

Some time ago, I received a comment on my RYM list. Curious, I checked out who it was and what they had to say. To my surprise, it was from the person behind that dreadful MIDI mishmash known as Spring Break. He admitted he wasn’t too proud of it and instead shared links to his other projects. One of them caught my interest enough to warrant this review.

Holden Caulfield Vs. The World dropped its four-track debut EP, What Would Garfield Do If He Was in My Position, in 2023. Recorded during the summer and early fall, this project follows a similar formula to Spring Break but takes a few baby steps toward improvement. The production remains rough, the mastering nonexistent, but the songwriting has noticeably evolved. The screeching “kittencore” vocals are more confident, and while the fourth track leans into instrumental territory, it offers an interesting blend of dissonant skramz chaos and melodic twinkly emo passages.

Compared to Spring Break, this is a clear improvement—and honestly, I’d jam this one any day.

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Sećate li se Spring Break projekta? E pa, evo još jednog iz iste glave — mada će te možda iznenaditi u kom pravcu ide.

Pre izvesnog vremena dobio sam komentar na svoj RYM spisak. Iz radoznalosti sam pogledao ko je i šta piše, i ispostavilo se da je to autor onog nesrećnog MIDI haosa poznatog kao Spring Break. Sam je priznao da nije naročito ponosan na to izdanje i umesto toga podelio linkove ka drugim projektima. Jedan od njih me dovoljno zainteresovao da mu posvetim ovaj tekst.

Holden Caulfield vs. the World izbacio je svoj debitantski EP What Would Garfield Do If He Was in My Position 2023. godine. Sniman tokom leta i rane jeseni, ovaj projekat prati sličnu formulu kao Spring Break, ali uz nekoliko malih, ali bitnih koraka unapred. Produkcija je i dalje gruba, master praktično ne postoji, ali je sama pesmopisateljska osnova očigledno sazrela. Onaj škripavi „kittencore“ vokal sada zvuči samouverenije, a četvrta numera, koja naginje instrumentalu, nudi zanimljiv spoj disonantnog skramz haosa i melodičnih, „twinkly“ emo pasaža.

U poređenju sa Spring Break-om, ovo je jasna nadogradnja — i iskreno, radije bih pustio ovaj EP bilo kog dana.

WHAT WOULD GARFIELD DO IF HE WAS IN MY POSITION? (2023)