“if you think it’s cool” balances slacker apathy with bone-rattling rock in a way that only a band living through their late-twenties restlessness could deliver.
The song opens deceptively soft, like it’s trying to lull you into thinking everything’s under control. But don’t get too comfortable. Soon enough, the guitars rip through with a delicious crunch, as if someone just flipped the switch from daydream to demolition. That tension between restraint and full-blown chaos is where groan room shine — they dangle you on the line of calm before knocking you off your chair with distortion.
In poetic terms, “if you think it’s cool” feels like a sigh dressed up as a smirk. It taps into that familiar paralysis of watching time slip by while you’re still trying to decide what to do with it. There’s self-deprecation, yes, but never without a wink. That tongue-in-cheek delivery keeps it from spiraling into despair; instead, it lands like a mate poking fun at your quarter-life crisis while passing you another pint.
I feel like the cherry on top is the way the track explodes into its final act. The guitars spiral into this vast, spacey soundscape, like a spaceship firing up and pulling away. You’re not just listening anymore — you’re strapped in, the engines are roaring, and suddenly the noise becomes a kind of liberation. That’s where the melancholia meets catharsis, and it’s hard not to want to replay the launch.
About groan room:
Based in Salford, groan room are no strangers to grit. Each member comes from years of gigging in the North West, and their music carries that lived-in weight. Think the sneer of Britpop, the heaviness of grunge, and the shrugged shoulders of slacker rock, all crammed into a single practice room until something combustible happens. Their 2020 trip to Abbey Road gave them their first recorded taste of chaos, and with each release since, they’ve been tightening that wildness into something sharper, meaner, and more self-aware. If this single is anything to go by, they’re only getting louder — and better at making us want to turn it up.
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