The Setlist & The Script

2022 has been a big year for Nice Guy – they’ve been out on tour and supported bands like The Heavy North and Apollo Junction, and have released three singles thus far – Shame, Tonight and Fast Food. Their fourth single of the year – Corona – is arguably their best recorded work to date.

Formed in 2018, the Teesside five-piece are – Michael McClusky (vocals/guitar), Josh Atkinson (guitar), Chris Pittman (bass), Matthew Bowen (drums) and Patrick Michael Oliver (keys). I saw the band recently in Liverpool and was impressed with their vibrant, brash set of tunes including Fake Leather and Last Orders at The Linthorpe. With their latest release Nice Guy have managed to capture and distil the essence of their stimulating live performance, bottle it up, and put it out for all to enjoy.

Firstly, let’s deal with the song’s title. Thankfully, Corona has nothing to do with a virus or a pandemic. The song is about a person who finds himself getting left behind – times may change but individuals find themselves rooted in the past. Songwriter McClusky explains that the song is written ‘from the perspective of a man who hasn’t grown-up and pines for the days where he drank in the park with his friends and the girl he liked whilst the world has moved on. He’s now questioning why he is still drinking when it’s lost the glamour it once had’.

The song starts with a simple 3 note guitar riff reminiscent of early era The Cure. This guitar is then joined by a heartbeat-like drumbeat. There’s a snippet of choral keyboards and then the vocals kick in, ‘I can picture my favourite poster, it’s no fun getting drunk when you’re older’.

With this song Nice Guy demonstrate a developing maturity in their song-writing skills. Corona contains two distinct, competing guitar riffs, working in harmony – one happy and high, the other low and more ponderous. One riff represents the remorse filled present of the song’s protagonist, while the other harks back to the opportunities and potential laying before his youthful self – a symbiosis of time-spanning guitar counterpoint.

The middle of the song fills out with lingering keyboard chords and brooding bass, and builds-up to indie anthem levels as singer McClusky wistfully wails, ‘I can’t get you out of my head’. There is a hint of The Killers methodology in the way that Nice Guy develop Corona and bring the song galloping to a tumultuous climax.

Corona was recorded at Sugar House, Stockton and was mixed by Swift Mastering. It is available on the usual platforms from November 4th. It’s an intoxicating brew well worth sampling.

Ian Dunphy