“Bleachers” is the stage name for Jack Antonoff, the Grammy-winning producer and songwriter who has worked with the likes of Taylor Swift, Sia and Carly Rae Jepsen.
Before all that, the singer made his name with indie pop band Fun, which achieved worldwide success with songs like We Are Young and Some Nights.
With Gone Now, Bleachers is perhaps trying to induce hapless feelings of nostalgia. The whole album has a retro 1980s synth-influenced sound to it which may remind you of a John Hughes movie.
The catchy anthemic lead single Don’t Take My Money is a prime example of that. Co-written by Lorde, the song is about the insecurities that come with every relationship.
The same formula is used on songs like All My Heroes, Everybody Lost Somebody and I Miss Those Days. They are all upbeat numbers with cheerful dispositions that mask feelings of helplessness.
Not everything is doom and gloom in Gone Now, though, as Nothing Is U is a lovely electropop piano ballad powered by realistic optimism (“And I can’t be alone anymore…”).
Gone Now’s one glaring mishap is Goodbye, a badly-written tune that could have been a boy band catalogue reject that Bleachers picked up for the sake of irony. If you feel like yearning for better days when everything was pretty in pink, then Gone Now is for you.
Jack Antonoff aka Bleachers has a new album out. Photo: Sony Music
Bleachers
Gone Now
Sony Music
