If you’re at the local shows, chances are you’ve seen worrywart around. The five-piece have been making a name for themselves on DIY stages in the 604, shredding at Red Gate, Green Auto, and presumably blue and yellow haunts we’re not hip enough to know about. 

“Smile” might not be the band’s first official music release, but it’s the first music video. And what a production it is. The five members give us subtle folk horror, with a pale yellow light bathing the carefully constructed artistry.

Shot largely on bleachers that no longer exist, the fuzz-heavy song gets surreal. Band members stand covered in sheets like colourful ghosts in the forest. Their faces glitch into each other. 

Shots spin dizzyingly. Fish-eye lenses flare. Dozens of the same person walk through surrounds like micro-doses of Alex Garland’s Men (2022). The sound cascades and ebbs, coming into a cathartic climax as the ghosts have their sheets pulled away by offscreen forces. When the band members reassemble on the bleachers, they beam. There are more ghosts around them, marching in disconnected lines, as the sonic soundscape wails before stopping abruptly. 

The lyrics are stripped back, balancing specificity and vagueness. “If I was one of the boys I think I’d notice/If I was one of the girls I wouldn’t dance along the fence,” they sing. “I wanna rid this from my chest/I always liked this smile the best.” 

It’s haunting, by turns plaintive and punk. Just like the video. If the band keeps making songs this strong, worrywart has nothing to worry about.