Stuck on Planet Earth’s Beautiful Nowhere (Album Review and Music Video)

Stuck on Planet Earth is a feeling I’ve never been all that used to. It’s also the name of this three-piece, alternative rock band from Vaughan, Ontario consisting of Adam Bianchi, Al Capo, and Andrew Testa. Earlier this year the three released their new album Beautiful Nowhere and the video for their single Higher than the Drugs, and well, they’re both just damn great. The album has been in the works for some time now with Rising – one of the album’s other singles – released last November. I’m only mentioning that because I thought it was notable, I’m certainly not complaining. I’m a quality over quantity kind of guy, so take your time and do it right.

I had never heard of these guys until tonight when Spotify decided to bump them along my algorithm and into my recommended artists. I’m a sucker for bleak sounding band names so I clicked on Stuck on Planet Earth immediately.

The first impression I have of Stuck on Planet Earth is ‘I desperately want to see these guys play in person – I bet the energy is great!’ After that, my second impression is I’m pretty impressed with the music. Here are some highlights from the album.

I Want it Now is the title track for the album – sort of, in that the title of the album is the lyrics and stuff. It’s all cool. I Want It Now is a track that hits you right away in a personal way and then takes you on a ride you weren’t ready for. It’s a fun tune. It’s like a friend that shows up to take you out for ‘one drink’ and the next thing you know you’re waking up on unfamiliar farm equipment.

Higher Than The Drugs is one of the strongest tracks on the album and comes with a video that features an astronaut (the old-fashioned kind, from earlier this year) wandering through Los Angeles. The video was shot in January before the world went into lockdown. So the symbolism of isolation with the astronaut suit – if you picked up too – is coincidental to the timing of the video release. One conceivably could guess that this video is about the COVID-19 lockdown itself, but when you step back and enjoy it – it’s more than that initial symbolism and would have probably stood stronger on its own had this whole pandemic thing not happened.  I guess art and life reflect each other more than I thought. In this case unintentionally.

This song is a high-energy party night in the making, or in the lyrics… or both. It’s the kind of song that’s not really about partying but it’s kind of about partying, and you know you want to party to it. Higher than the Drugs is a strong song because it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than the really good alt-rock song it is. If there is an edgy-hit on this album, this is it.

Ghosts on the Radio starts out like a song that has the word ‘Ghosts’ in the title should… then takes an abrupt left turn. It’s a good turn. As I’m starting to predict Stuck on Planet Earth doesn’t stick to any predictable format for any of their songs.

It’s another example of a traditional alt-rock song by the band, that’s just not that traditional when you break it down.

Skin Talk is a Great Track. Been there. Sort-of.

Serotonin is the pop-track on the album if there is a pop-track. It’s also the second-last track on the album and the last one I’m going to review in detail. The album has ten solid tracks and is worth listening to end-to-end. Serotonin is worth talking about because it’s not a single, it’s a pretty random track, but it’s a good track and it stands on its own. I will (one-day) watch these guys play a whole show front-to-back and not get a little bit bored, I’m almost sure of it. Stuck on Planet Earth pushes themselves, or maybe just tries something new with this track. Either way, it’s a cool sound and will probably be remixed any minute now.

Beautiful Nowhere was one of those albums  I came across out of… nowhere, that I thought was worth sharing.

For more information on Stuck on Planet Earth visit their website here: https://www.stuckonplanetearth.com