ALBUM REVIEW: Selfish Things – “Logos”

By TJ Hayes

Toronto based Selfish Things dropped their debut album, Logos, via Pure Noise Records on September 20th. Following their 2018 EP, Vertical Love, Logos, is a collection of 11 tracks that dive right into the psyche of frontman Alex Biro. “I want people to know that there is strength in your faults. It’s just as important to suffer as it is to find moments of joy and happiness. Darkness and light need one another,” shares Biro on the new album.

While taking their name from Jimmy Eat World’s “23,” with unmatched determination, Selfish Things prove they are neither selfish nor self-serving. Having spent years cultivating and nurturing his raw, natural talent, dedication to musicianship and songwriting, frontman Alex Biro founded Selfish Things. All of this, in the hope of shedding light on one simple, yet frequently overlooked, concept — honesty. “It’s just honest,” he explains. “I think it’s the first time in my life that I’ve legitimately told the truth. I got so caught up in trying to be something I wasn’t in my past endeavors, that I forgot what was important, and that was nobody’s fault but my own. What we’ve created as this project, I think it’s the first time in my life that I’ve really just been honest with myself, my own suffering and the story I want to tell.”

The group released five singles from the album before its release, one of the most recent ones being “Blood” which features Andy Leo of Crown The Empire. “Blood” is a deeply personal song with a menacing undertone that’s representative of the emotional toll losing a loved one to illness can take. On the track, frontman Alex Biro shares, “My grandma was dying. She had a white blood cell count of 40,000, which is (if my memory serves me correctly) 10 times what it should be for a normal person. WZRD BLD and one of our friends KJ had the chorus pretty much set in stone and the band and I took it from there. [It’s] definitely one of my favorite songs on the album, although birthed from a difficult moment in my life.” 

Another standout single on the album is “Drained” featuring William Ryan Key, formerly of Yellowcard. Together, they deliver a rock-driven single with haunting vocals. Diving into the thoughts that maybe your partner won’t be able to stick with you through the ups and downs of life, “Drained” transforms a question so many people have asked into an emotionally captivating song. On the track, frontman Alex Biro shares, “I’d just gotten married and had spent a lot of time thinking about the importance of sticking together through thick/thin. In the age of Tinder and online dating, people tend to give up on each other instead of working through the difficult shit. It’s a lot easier to call it quits than it is to fix yourself when you feel like you can open your phone and find somebody else. I never want to be that – ever.” 

One of the slower-paced songs, “Pride,” plays on the classic trope about contending with the hardships of growing up, this song shows that it’s okay to be sad, and it’s totally normal for things to go wrong sometimes. The track’s lyrics “But who would want a perfect life?/With nothing wrong, but nothing right?” echo this thought.

The group brings unabashedly honest music to a world fueled by false promises and pretenses. While Logos could undoubtedly appeal to fans of Rise Against, The Used, AFI, Twenty-One Pilots, and Movements, Selfish Things no doubt create a sound entirely their own. The fusion of sound from modern punk to new age rock to emo pop-ballad slow burners makes Logos a unique piece of work that would appeal to a multi-variant of fans.

Clearly, other bands think so too as Selfish Things will be touring the United States this fall/winter supporting acts Don Broco and Boston Manor. Either with the high energy rock anthems or with the slower songs, Selfish Things are sure to capture hearts across the world with a piece of work that is basking in honesty and rarity.