Hailing from Koronadal city in The Philippines, No Space To Grow is a five-piece Pop-Punk band. Their latest single is entitled “Jessica’s So Hoe”, and is a fun and 2000s nostalgic bop. The song begins with some typical punk chords and snare drums that feel inclined towards Ska more than pop-punk. I immediately envisioned myself on a long desert road on a summer vacation. The band’s vocalist can belt out beautiful and controlled high notes with a little bit of nasality (that’s also native among Pop-Punk bands). After the two-minute mark, the song slows down into a sort of breakdown, and to my surprise, a harmonica has entered the chat. These guys are no one trick pony for sure. The bass and drums were a little bit drowned in the mix below the rhythm guitar, making me wish I could hear the slick bass lines more clearly, as they seem to be well-written. But other than that I have no complaints at all, the drumming patterns and vocals were on point. The lead guitar went back and forth from chord progressions to clean melodic verses, accentuating that summer beach song. And the breakdown part with the harmonica was not predictable at all. The end of the track has some laughing and an exchange of jokes/banter which shows how this band is just a bunch of friends who’ve been together for a long time and want to create some fun tracks. I need to hear a full album from these guys to know how far their innovation goes, but so far it’s safe to say they’ve sparked my interest with how they can sound both unique and still familiar at the same time.
