Underlay is a Melbourne, Australia-based artist who has just come to my attention with the release of his new EP. Written across three locations between 2020 and 2022, there’s a song on the EP to commemorate all of them. It’s called Sick Like A Kid.
By Graeme Smith
Real name Cody Broughman, Underlay has spent time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as well as Newcastle and now Melbourne in Australia. Cody’s new EP was forged during a tumultuous time in his life. While most of us were bemoaning being stuck indoors during the pandemic, he had lost his house to a fire one week into lockdown.
Out of that tragedy came a ray of hope – he decided that Underlay needed to be more than a side project. Fast forward to 2024 and we have his first release via Nettwerk Music Group. It’s a doozy, packing in bombast and poignancy in equal measure across its five tracks.
The EP opens with Through Your Teeth. Brash metallic notes overlay some brooding bass in an arrangement that gradually builds before springing to life into emotional pop. Melancholic vocals bring to mind the indie rock of the early ’00s. Underlay is perhaps a poppier cousin.
Family Lines brightens things with a relentless rhythm and some bombastic indie rock that rises and falls intriguingly. A stripped-back verse best showcases the subtle character of Cody’s vocals before a cathartic chorus will have you moving. Haircut sits at the heart of the EP and gives us a layered and bittersweet highlight. Its cantering tempo demands some head nodding and the vocals are particularly pleading.
Ought slows things down a touch with a dreamy and reflective moment that explodes into electronic bliss before Father’s Name closes the EP. An acoustic detour ramps up the sense of vulnerability while its lyrics are especially visceral. Compared to what’s come before, it’s understated, but that’s where its power lies, and makes the explosion of noise half way through all the more striking.
Sick Like A Kid is out now via Nettwerk Music Group. You can check it out below.