Hailing from Niš, Serbia, the band Bitter Blue crafts a mixture of hooky rock immediacy and vulnerable emotion across their EP, Levity, released in 2024 via Tribal Rajber. The project serves as the musical alter ego for songwriter Luka Nikolić, who collaborated with longtime friends to capture a period of personal upheaval. Drawing influence from the sharp, groove-driven sensibilities of The Strokes and Bloc Party in addition to more throwback influences like The Smiths, the four-piece explores twisted emotions through a lens of both melodic songwriting and Peep Show-inspired irony and vulnerability.
Jangly guitars and punchy rhythms kickstart the album on “Someone Better.” Words fail me all day long, thoughts rambling on and on,” an introspective vocal presence reveals, lushly melodic before the title-touting ascent: “Someone better than I ever thought that I could ever be.” A smitten sense is conveyed alongside the glistening guitar work, catchy and heartfelt in its approachability. The ensuing “Dirty Business” struts more initial ardor, its excellent pulsing guitars and “try to find a way out of the cages that surround us” lyrical yearning imparting an urgent, frantic immersion relative to the opener’s more adoring serenity.
Another gem of a track, “Sentinel” stirs with its climactic structural pull — venturing from trickling guitar elements and debonair vocal contemplations, musing on demons and doubts, into an anthemic fervency. There, intertwining vocal soaring, bustling rhythms, and powerful guitars combine for a replay-inducing, energetic infectiousness. EP finale “What Are You?” delights as well, traversing from initially nocturnal atmospherics — hushed vocals, subdued guitar jangling — and into a delectably hard-rocking send-off. Levity is a dynamic, memorable success of an EP from Bitter Blue.
—
“Someone Better” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
