If the soundtrack to your life was directed by Arms Akimbo, then it would immediately project out more colourful memories, especially with the adolescent haze of Parachute.
If you didn’t check out Arms Akimbo last year, then that means you missed out on the iconic Michigan; a perfectly crafted alt-rock, adolescence fueled, soon to be an all-time classic ’emo’ track. However, Arms Akimbo are ready to crown another one of their tracks with the title of ‘soon to be an iconic emo track’, with the release of Parachute bringing in a new era for the LA group.
This song is the opening piece of our new record. It’s what you get when you have a lot of emotion to funnel through a really small outlet. I was writing a lot of songs that felt like nothing to me at the time. There is something about the driving, heartbeat of a rhythm that feels like your progressing towards something better. That, coupled with the lyrics “I can’t stand it” gave this push/pull feeling you get with any tumultuous relationship. The song is weird in that it’s meaning isn’t as clear for me as other things I’ve written myself. There’s a lot about feeling unsure. There is a lot about dissatisfaction and until the chorus it kinda feels like you’re frustratedly stuck in your room. When it hits you finally take that step outside.
Having spent 2017 writing and re-writing, while myself and many others have been anticipating the next step for Arms Akimbo, the LA four-piece embraced their artist’s block, as Parachute details the difficulties of breaking out of previous formalities when anything else feels unfinished and alien. While folk music may run heavily throughout Parachute, with the repeating twangs of plucked guitars echoing rock friendly country, Arms Akimbo’s underlying precision when it comes to the finessing of teenage/emo soundtracking, which appears to be of pure luck from the group’s description of the track, is unfathomable to comprehend for such a young band, especially when Parachute’s narrative of feeling unsure, is so perfectly relatable to just about anyone.
An anxious display of self-doubt and personal mistrust shows Parachute as a leap of faith for Arms Akimbo. The cord may have sprung open a safety net for Arms Akimbo to fall back upon, it could have failed completely and led them to a timely demise. Yet, Parachute does much more, in showing both the LA group and their fans, how much more the four-piece have to offer and how truly exciting the future will be, especially when Arms Akimbo release tracks filled with uncertainty that radiates gold dust.
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