“Behind A Smile” - 4 DAYS

4 DAYS – Behind A Smile

Geelong’s 4 Days have dropped Behind A Smile, and it’s a fkn heart strung belter. It’s dripping in that late 90s to early 2000s grunge hangover, but instead of sounding like a half arsed throwback, it punches through with something genuine, raw, and way too emotionally honest for a bunch of Aussie blokes with guitars.

Frontman Jono originally planned on being a solo acoustic sad boy, but clearly the universe had other ideas. Once the full band locked in and gave the songs some proper backbone (and a shitload of distortion), 4 Days was born, named after one of Jono’s most emotionally gutting tracks. How’s that for on the nose? But somehow, it fucking works.

Behind A Smile rips through the plastered on grin we all wear and drags out the anxiety and heartbreak hiding behind it. The guitars churn with a dirty, almost slow Alice In Chains-esque snarl, while the rhythm section keeps things tight enough to bang heads but loose enough to breathe. It’s got heart, but it’s also got bite – like if you fed your feelings through a fuzz pedal and then punched a hole in your bedroom wall.

Lyrically, it doesn’t try to be clever – and that’s what makes it work. It’s blunt, it’s pissed off, it’s sad, and it couldn’t give a fuck about sugar coating anything. The band prides itself on writing what feels right, not what’s trendy, and you can tell. This is the kind of tune that sounds like it was written at 2am with a bottle of red and a few bad memories.

Listen to “Behind A Smile” here

With a previous single (“4 Days”) already out and an album’s worth of material waiting in the wings, 4 Days are clearly not here to fuck around. If Behind A Smile is anything to go by, this band is just warming up – and we’re all gonna feel it.

Crank it. Feel it. Reflect.