Imagine this: the two leads of your favorite bands join forces musically. It's an unexpected, yet beautiful anomaly that captivates every sense of your body. This is what happened when the world discovered Simple Creatures. To make this a reality, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low got together to start a new wave/synthpop, or "trash-pop" as they call it, project. Each song, while somewhat similar in style, has its own unique elements that work to bring a masterpiece of an album together.

Hoppus and Gaskarth work together beautifully and their voices work so well together! I'll admit that before I listened to them together, I was pretty hesitant and full of questions: What about both of their bands? Are they going solo now? It was hard not to think such things, but it's clear that they're both in good standing with their bands and are having fun together with this project. Even if you are still worried about the conditions of Blink and ATL, the music from Simple Creatures will make up for it.

Simple Creatures just touches upon topics surrounding multiple life events from the usual jazz even to some deeper topics if you really want to think of it that way. I don't know about anyone else, but "Special" is one of my favorite songs by them and the way I read into the lyrics poses to me that it could be one of those deeper topics. The song mentions wanting to "wish my pain away", being under a good amount of pressure, and overall just wanting to feel good again. While it is a little deep, the song is also relatable on so many different levels and allows each of us to take what we want from it. It's really quite the catchy masterpiece.

Another thing Simple Creatures does a great job with is painting a picture in their songs. This is especially apparent in "Strange Love" where you get a bar scene with plenty of live music and a love/fling interest. If I'm being honest here, there's nothing better than a song that comes with a story and awakens your senses while your dancing to an absolute bop! Not only do I picture exactly what's being said in "Strange Love", but I can also feel the vibrating floors of the bar and the heat and sweat from being there (or maybe that's from my terrible dancing). The vibes and sensory are real!

"Ether" really speaks to me and is the song I can relate to. My analysis that I take from this one is leaving the state I've called home for years and all of my friends there behind. As it's put in this song, that place was, "a city in the rearview buried now in memories cross another state line" as soon as the car found its way on the highway. It was hard to leave everything behind, yet so easy to want it all back in my life. As the song also mentioned, you can do whatever you wish to get both, the best of both worlds, but you'll never get them both. You're meant to take things one step at a time as you're presented with them and the reality is that you can't hold onto every little thing you have to let go of, and this is a message that everyone needs to hear.

So, before I go on and on about how amazing this project is, it's time to maybe be a little cliche. Thank you, Alex and Mark (even though you'll probably never see this)! Thank you both for being amazingly talented and unique human beings. Thank you for beings the weirdos that captivated me and sent me to the world I needed through music. You have no idea how much you've lifted my spirits when I've been overwhelmed. I'm proud to have made a fool of myself with my horrible dancing and singing skills when it comes to belting out your songs. Also, I apologize to any neighbors or friends that had to witness that.

Anyway, yes, please please open your mind to a different style of music and give SImple Creatures a listen. It may not be your cup of tea at first, but I promise there's got to be something in there for everyone to love. Vibe with it and get every song stuck in your head more than the facts you need to know for a test like I did. Studying and life can take a break, it's fine. All music deserves to be checked out and I can guarantee that this duo was as addictive to me as my favorite comfort food.