"Reflection"

You're an adult and you've finally got your shit together-- you've come to appreciate the recorded output of Sade, cereal is no longer an acceptable dinner option, and you're having civilized, regularly scheduled conversations with your parents. But then you hear the guitars on Balance and Composure's "Reflection", and they tear that whole shit down immediately.

In the lineage of Linkin Park's "Crawling", Deftones' "Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)", or Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "Reflection" is a beautiful alt-rock song that wants to be ugly metal, from the perspective of a vulnerable guy who wants to be seen as dangerous. And man, there isn't a better lyric for this sort of thing than "reflection, who do I really see?," delivered by Jon Simmons in flat, nasal harmonies-- the sound of your post-pubescent, inner monologue telling you this world is full of things you cannot understand.

It almost certainly makes the name "Balance and Composure" sound ironic in this context, but otherwise "Reflection" is a total irony-free zone, four cathartic minutes of gorgeous, weapons-grade embarrassment rock that squarely hits the button when you realize that incapacitating teen angst is still an accessible nuclear option.

The Things We Think We're Missing is out September 10 in North America via No Sleep and in the UK/Europe via Hassle.