heavy lifter – backyard
The guitar that opens “backyard” has a chill to it: a minor key hangs that could pass for a stripped down cousin of Metallica’s “Fade to Black” if you’re not paying close attention. Heavy Lifter don’t sit in that mood for long. Ren Forest’s vocals arrive light and high, close to a whisper at first, and pull the whole track toward something warmer before the intro even finishes making its case.
It’s the Oakland band’s follow up to “Control”, another single that had us paying attention, and it’s out today on Cherub Dream Records. Heavy Lifter call their sound “queer post bubblegum slut grunge”. “backyard” leans into the noise side early, verses built on a basement show rawness, before the chorus opens the mix up and lets Forest’s voice carry more of the weight.
The lyrics stay close to the title: a backyard as the one place where the doors can stay closed and the outside world doesn’t get a vote. There’s a specific image of a BART ride home late in July, ice cream melting before it makes it anywhere, that grounds the song in something real instead of abstract. By the second verse that private space starts catching fire, literally, someone yelling out windows, a house burning down, and the hook turns into a small stand off: one person who loves watching the other explore, the other who needs an open door or they’ll find their own way out. It’s a song about how much room two people can actually give each other before it stops feeling like room.
