Wearing its heart on its sleeve, This Is Where The Panic Sets In places the raw emotion of Roe’s songwriting in a sound defined by jagged punctuation and rolling dynamism wrapped in slick indie-pop. A record that rests on introspective lyricism and bombastic passages, Roe’s debut offering is alive with meaning.
This Is Where The Panic Sets In doesn’t hold back. ‘New Behaviours’, the opening track, references the turbulence of its own creation. “I’ll go out to have breakfast so I don’t get sick of the view. It always reminds me of you. Maybe finish the album I’m working on flat-out to feel like I’m still a reason,” encapsulates Roe as a songwriter willing to take from her experience and express it clearly through music. This relatable core is essential to the record itself, giving weight to the dynamic music surrounding it.
Built from repose and release, This Is Where The Panic Sets In uses the turbulent nature of emotion to rise and fall dynamically. The deep breath before the intimate ballad ‘A Temporary Thing’ plays into the fragility of its theme. While the jolting punk-pop of ‘I Can Change’ works with internal frustration of lines like “To really believe that my ghosts are behind me. Why is this so hard? It shouldn’t phase me. But I’ve been hating myself lately”. These contrasting but cohesive characteristics are later found in the reverb-soaked closer ‘Alarms’.
This Is Where The Panic Sets In, and indeed Roe’s songwriting thus far, reaches its zenith with “Cut My Teeth’. Beautiful in its craft, heart-wrenching in its meaning and captivating in its performance, ‘Cut My Teeth’ is simply perfect. Honest in every musical and artistic sense.
And so it goes, Roe has stayed true to herself throughout. This Is Where The Panic Sets In is an album about everything, internal and external, that goes in to making art. Fully-realised lyrically and musically, This Is Where The Panic Sets In leaves everything on the table and you can’t ask for more than that from any artist.
