song: "Blister" - Nectar

words: jami fowler

Nectar makes fuzzy pop punk songs with an upbeat glow that cleverly hide the shadow of more melancholic lyrics, and their single — “Blister” is no exception to this rule. “Blister”'s bouncy guitars, springy bass, and jittering drums will have you head-bopping to a song about how the things we love can also hurt us. 

The track was written in the aftermath of a significant skateboarding accident that made everyday activities, like playing guitar, much harder for Nectar's lead singer and primary songwriter Kamila Glowacki. "Now I'm feeling interrupted/by a brick wall" paints a visual of that stuck feeling the injury created, while the line "my favorite blister" peeks at the idea that pain from something we love doing can still give us a little pinprick of pride. 

The chorus "I'll tell you something/I'll tell you something to believe/it's not all or nothing/I'll tell you something" is sung with the confidence of insight gained from struggle and frustration. Her "sandpaper fall" (a line I felt in my hands from the million sidewalk dives I stopped with scraped up palms growing up) led to the lesson that we don't have to push ourselves too hard. We can do the things we love and still take the time to heal. Surrounded by twinkly keyboards, she begs us "baby please/take it easy". Maybe we should.