Getting Started is a Chicago five-piece, and “Pistonspeak” is their first new song since their self-titled debut last year. I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting much going in. Debut album, year off, first single back. That formula goes wrong as often as it goes right.
What got me was the piano. Eddie O’Connor isn’t just padding out the chords behind the guitars, he’s actually doing something with the low end in the second verse that caught me off guard on a first listen. Jack Gallo’s vocal take sounds a little tired, almost like he recorded it at the end of a long day, and that works for this song specifically. It’s not a polished, big-chorus delivery. It sounds lived in.
Matt Stein’s lead guitar shows up right when the song needs a jolt, and Pat Hickey and Jack Scanlon hold the rhythm section together so the whole thing doesn’t drift. If this is a preview of the next record, I’m in. The band sounds locked in with each other in a way that takes most bands years to get to, and they’re only one album deep.
Go listen, then go follow them so you catch the rest of this year’s releases.
Follow Getting Started: Instagram – Spotify
