Wurld Series: Surrealism vs. Workday Malaise

Wurld Series, an indie rock band from Christchurch, New Zealand, crafts thoughtful and witty songs that offer an escape from millennial disaffection. Led by songwriter Luke Towart and producer Brian Feary, the band translates the struggles of corporate and daily life into bizarre, nursery rhyme-like ditties. Their second album, "What's Growing," sheds earlier lo-fi sounds, revealing the depth of Towart's lyricism and setting them apart from typical '90s revivalists.

The album's sound incorporates influences from '90s American indie rock, '60s and '70s psych-folk, and classic New Zealand pop. Prominent Mellotron lines lend a pastoral feel, while tracks like "Nap Gate" feature dense guitar grooves. Hypnotic, tabla-driven passages, such as in "I See," showcase the band's distinct musicality. Towart's lyrics vividly depict the ambient terrors of the platform economy and endless work, transforming mundane anxieties into compelling, oddball vistas.

Songs like "Nap Gate" portray bosses as gruesome monsters amidst managerial gobbledygook, while "World Beating System" elegantly captures social media overload through rhyme. "Eliminator" likens life to an unwinnable video game. Despite occasional inscrutable imagery, the album's strangeness is intentional, pitting the surreal and avant-garde against the sludge of late capitalism to provide new tools for escape.