If pop music is something you enjoy, then it’s very likely that you have heard Jack Antonoff’s work – without even knowing it. He is best known for his production in Taylor Swift’s album Lover, Lorde’s Melodrama and Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! However, he is not particularly known for one of his - in my opinion - best works, which is his pop act known as Bleachers.
Bleachers was originally a secret project Antonoff started while his band Fun. was on the road in 2013, and he released his first single “I Wanna Get Better” on February 18th 2014. It was also featured in his debut album called Strange Desire, and remains one of my favourite songs till date. The song talks about the desire to get better while going through grief, and the urge to be self destructive.
Most of his music is centred around loss, and finding yourself amidst the chaos that comes with grief, and love – and he does all of this with some of the most wonderful production I have ever heard. He often samples phrases from interviews he does with people and mixes them with his music, as seen in his second album, Gone Now. Camilla Venturini, an Italian model, can be heard throughout that album with strangely vague sentences that you can’t help but feel connected to.
Bleachers often feels like it is straight out of a John Hughes’ film, and has a way of making you feel nostalgic without you even realising it. All My Heroes is a song that’s essentially about the people you look up to letting you down, but also wanting to turn out better than them. It has a simple meaning, and a simple message – just because the people you once admired weren’t as great as you thought they were, doesn’t mean that you’re going to turn out that as well.
I find it absurd that Bleachers is not all that popular, considering that it has so much to offer. In my opinion, it takes the best, most fun parts of pop and meaningful lyricism and blends them together in a truly wonderful way, which is very underrated nowadays. It has some of the most unique music I have ever heard and I would urge more people to give their music a try, as there is something for everyone in their music.