Deb Never has been one of my favorite Indie/Alternative artists to emerge in the late 2010s and early 2020s. I have always felt like she is massively underrated and deserves to be thought of in the same vein as people like Clairo or Mitski. She has not quite reached that level, though, and still deserves way more attention than she is getting. She has always had such an eclectic sound that draws from so many genres, and I feel that there are no limits to what she can do. After working as a session guitarist for a while, Deb Never initially burst onto the scene when she started posting original music on Soundcloud in 2017. After dropping a plethora of singles and Soundcloud and streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music from 2017-2019, Deb Never was noticed by Brockhampton and was featured on their song ‘NO HALO, from their 2019 album GINGER. Shortly after this feature, Deb Never released her debut EP House On Wheels. After a couple more years of singles and collaborations, Deb Never returned with her second EP Where Have All The Flowers Gone? in 2021(this was one of my favorite projects of that year and I reviewed it very highly. You should go check out that review after reading this one if you like Deb Never). Deb Never had a relatively quiet 2022, as she only released one single and featured on a couple of tracks. Deb Never has now returned with her third EP in four years; it is called Thank You For Attending. She has said this is the last EP she’s releasing before putting out her debut album sometime in the near future. That said, here is how I feel about Deb Never’s EP Thank You For Attending. Please let me know in the comments below what your favorite songs are from this project as well as how you feel about it as a whole.

The opening track, ‘Momentary ‘Sweetheart,’ was the only song that was released in anticipation of this record. Unfortunately, I actually somehow missed this single when it originally came out in February. I ended up hearing it about a month and a half later, and it has quickly emerged as one of my favorite songs of the year. This track has a Post-Grunge sound that reminds me of the early 2000s. To me, it is like the best version of this kind of music. When I first heard this track, I immediately thought of artists like Seether or Chevelle. The song has a melody driven by a harsh, somber guitar riff that has a heavy feel. Everything about this instrumental feels so gloomy. Deb Never’s vocal performance on this song is great. It is easy to hear the emotion in her voice; the way she sings this song makes the listener feel the disdain she is feeling. In ‘Momentary Sweetheart,’ Deb Never is singing about how she feels like he lover does not care about her the way she cares about them. She wants them to miss her when she goes like how she misses them. ‘5 O’Clock’ is a song with a sound I did not expect from Deb Never. One of the coolest things about her is that you never know what you are going to get, and this song is a great example. ‘5 O’Clock’ has an Industrial Hyper-Pop sound that is unlike anything else I have heard this year. So many artists have been trying their hand at Industrial music as well as HyperPop music, and this is an interesting way to approach and fuse those genres. The melody of the track is driven by a fast and aggressive guitar riff with a Punk sound, and the beat has an upbeat and twitchy HyperPop tempo. The massive amount of distortion on both the beat and melody gives the song an Industrial feeling. ‘5 O’Clock’ is like a dystopian Industrial version of Hyperpop Punk music(that is something I never expected to say). Deb Never’s soft and delicate vocals on this song create a cool juxtaposition with the instrumental. I like her vocal delivery for this track a lot because it calms the chaos a bit. On ‘5 O’Clock’ Deb Never is singing about hooking up with someone at a bar while very intoxicated. Deb Never relaxes the mood of the record considerably with the next song, ‘Say.’ This is a light and pleasant Pop-Rock track that reminds me of the Indie music from the late 2000s and early 2010s. This track immediately brought me back to artists like Lily Allen and Kate Nash. As with the first two tracks on the album, the song does have massive distortion on the guitar riff that drives the melody. This makes ‘Say’ stand out a lot because this kind of Indie Pop-Rock typically does not have distortion. Even though the melody is distorted, it still has a sweet and cozy quality. This is partially because of the synths and piano melody that add to the melody as well as the laid-back and soft drum beat that drive the track. Deb Never’s dainty and easy-going vocals are perfect for this song; when paired with this instrumental they give the song an ethereal, super soothing sound. On ‘Say,’ Deb Never is telling either a friend or significant other(it is honestly hard to tell) that she will always be there for them and that she hopes they achieve their dreams and that can express themself in the way they need to.

‘Open Season’ is a song that makes me think of the kind of music she originally got popular for. This song brings it back to the style of music that made me like her so much to begin with. The best way I can describe it is that it is like Alternative Hip Hop or R&B music. The song is driven by a melody provided by a guitar riff with a tranquil and warm Alternative Rock sound, and a beat that has a tempo that is reminiscent of 90s R&B. Deb Never has excelled at songs with a similar sound to this in the past. It is no different in this song. The only thing that I wish could be different is Deb Never’s flow on the song when it comes to her vocals. Her tone is very serene and pleasant to listen to, but I would rather she sang this song with more of a rap flow as she has on other songs like this instead of singing with more of a Pop Rock tempo. It is still an enjoyable song with a lot of quality, though. On ‘Open Season,’ Deb Never is singing about having an intimate time with a significant other and beginning to fall in love with them. ‘Mania & Bliss’ is a song that has similarities to two different songs on the album. It is similar to ‘Say’ in that it has a light and fun melody(which is driven by a guitar riff with synths drowning it), and it is comparable to ‘5 O’Clock’ in that it has a HyperPop beat. This song fully leans into the HyperPop sound that has become big in underground music over the last couple of years. Honestly, from the instrumental and the way Deb Never’s vocals are mixed, I could see someone mistaking this for a Charli XCX song. I did not know that this kind of straight-up HyperPop music was something that Deb Never could do, and I appreciate that she took a risk like this. I will say that it has such a glimmering and shiny song that it sticks out on the EP strangely, but I will never dislike when someone steps outside the box like Deb Never did on this track. On ‘Mania & Bliss,’ Deb Never is singing about falling head over heels for someone and being worried that things are moving too fast and slipping away from her. Deb Never ends this project on an interesting note with the song ‘Paper Houses.’ The first two-thirds of the song has a serene and soft Alternative Pop sound, and the last third of the song has a distorted HyperPop sound. The melody in the first half of the track is driven by a slow electric guitar riff with some sound effects surrounding it and a slow and light beat that is very peaceful. About two minutes into the song, the beat picks up and the melody gets heavily distorted. Throughout this whole track, Deb Never’s vocals never really change. She sings with the same mellow and radiant tone in the last part of the song as she does in the first part. I think this is a cool way to approach the vocals, as they match up so well with the instrumental in the first part of the song and contrast the instrumental in a cool way at the end of the song. On ‘Paper Houses,’ Deb Never is singing about how much pain she is in because her significant other left her. This track is instrumentally and lyrically a poignant way to end the EP, as it makes a statement and closes the project with a bang. 

As I stated more than once in this review, one of the best things about Deb Never in my opinion is that you never know what you are going to get from her. She is seemingly able to venture into any kind of music, and she can blend genres any way that she wants to. Thank You For Attending is an EP where Deb Never demonstrates this fact once again. On this one, she tries out a few kinds of music that I have never heard from her before. She does have a couple of songs on the project that is similar to some of her biggest tracks from the past but for the most part, she dives into waters that she has not gone into before. Unsurprisingly, Deb Never excels at these sounds that were new for her, and showed off a side to yet another side to her artistry. Thank You For Attending is not the most sophisticated or cohesive project, but it is a good collection of tracks that dips into multiple kinds of Alternative music. Thank You For Attending is a fun EP from one of today’s brightest rising Alternative music artists, and like her previous EPs, it makes me very excited to hear her debut album whenever it comes out in the future.

BEST TRACKS – ‘MOMENTARY SWEETHEART,’ ‘5 O’CLOCK,’ ‘SAY,’ ‘PAPER HOUSES’

7.96/10