photo by Jennifer Geraci; photo courtesy of Knyvet

Single Review of Steve Geraci: “Voice in My Head”

Boston music scene veteran Steve Geraci, frontman of The Tear Downs, released his solo EP Coming From Your Blind Spot in April 2024. He followed it up with the alt-rock single “Voice in My Head” a little less than three months ago, in March. On this single, Geraci handles guitar, bass, and vocals; he is joined by Dave Westner on drums and piano.

cover photo by Jennifer Geraci; image courtesy of Knyvet

The song opens with blasts of guitar and light drums – sparse musically but still slightly abrupt and jarring, like old-school alt-rock but perhaps a little more polished than that. Geraci’s vocals are also kind of angular, spoken/not-quite-shouted-sung. Again, he’s got that edgy alt-rock thing goin’ on. There are a couple verses, though, where he sings more rough-edged tunefully atop some “ooh” backing vocals. Geraci’s voice is all his own, but the vocal delivery and song tempo are akin to something you might expect from David Byrne/early ’80s Talking Heads.

Indeed, I’m not the only one to make the Talking Heads reference. After finishing my first draft of the review, I noticed it’s in the press material, too. It almost makes me want to come up with something more original, but no, I wasn’t an early ’80s alt-rocker, so that chapter of my artist thesaurus isn’t very long – there’s not a better comp in my arsenal. Regardless, it’s a cool song. Light, fun, and a little alt-rock-ishly dissonant.

Lyrically, the song is fun and interesting, representing – as if you hadn’t guessed from the song title – those intrusive thoughts that creep into our brains. You know, that “voice in (our) head.” Be sure to mentally check off the ones that frequent your brain while you listen to the song.

Looking Ahead

There’s a “Voice in My Head” video, too. Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/pyBKLJDQnHU. It just dropped three days ago.