“Sleepover,” the first cut from the New Haven-based Arms Like Roses’ new EP, Get Some Sleep, begins with a delicate guitar line and calming vocal, but the rhythm hints at the urgency to come. “I can’t speak,” the singer sings, “I’m sorry.”
Then, without warning, the song kicks into gear, blasting guitars and crashing drums, and the singer elaborates. “I can’t speak,” she sings again. But it turns out she has a lot to say.
“I can’t speak / When I try I just can’t help myself, by fucking it up somehow / I’m always sorry for nothing over and over again / But I’m not sorry for being myself,” she sings. “Every time I open my mouth, someone tries to point their finger at me / Every time I spit it all out, they try to shove the spoon in deep / But who’s really the better one? / I think we’ve made our beds / Now let me get some sleep, please / Get some sleep!”
A gang of voices joins on that last phrase, screaming it, mixing honesty and sarcasm together. It’s a strong opener for an album by a band moving into a new identity just as stages in the area are opening up again and people are getting out, ready to hear new music.
Arms Like Voices — Estelle Angel on vocals, Nina Marie on bass, Xela Stockmal on guitar, and Tom Shreve on drums — formed in late 2019 under the name Summer Camp Crush, releasing a demo and playing shows at DIY spaces and stages in the area. The band had shows scheduled for April 2020 at Best Video and at MAC 650 in Middletown. The Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to the band’s live performance plans; undeterred, band members switched to virtual rehearsals and songwriting, doing the occasional livestream, and working steadily on what would become Get Some Sleep. The band changed its name as it moved into 2021.
The sense of growth and change is palpable on Get Some Sleep. “Imaginary Days” begins with voices arguing as the song ramps up. It keeps building even as the lyrics look back, addressed to a friend from school and expressing a yearning for a simpler time, even if the singer knows she can’t turn back the clock. “Sometimes I wish I could just go back, but those days are now imaginary,” Angel sings. “Waiting” finds the band at its loudest and angriest, the lyrics expressing rage at the kind of stasis many were stuck in throughout 2020 (“We’re running in circles / We’re fighting in circles”). Shifting textures and hooky melodies make “Wallflower” a punk-pop confection. The lush atmospherics of “12 AM” are an aching background for an expression of despair that doubles as a cry of strength. And the “hidden track,” “Bedsheets and Plastic Stars,” finds the band moving into experimental territory that puts it right at home in the Elm City’s noise scene, as the band sets up a distorted squall for Angel to spill a torrent of words into.
Given the way the band sprinted out of the gate in booking live performances in the first few months of its existence, it seems likely that Arms Like Roses will hit a venue somewhere in the New Haven area soon. At the same time, the band has announced that, with the release of Get Some Sleep, the band’s members are already working on a full-length album to be recorded this summer. Whether in the studio or on the stage, Arms Like Roses is rushing headlong into whatever the future holds.
Get Some Sleep is available on Bandcamp.