Anthemic songs should swing for the fences. Big, churning chords, massive drums, and sing-along choruses are the bread and butter of these tracks, and playing to the cheap seats is an essential aim, as everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Coldplay can tell you. The best ones tend to connect with you when you’re still young, which helps explain why some many of them emphasize the damn-the-torpedos exuberance of youth. “Cool Kids,” the second track of Shana Falana’s album Here Comes The Wave (due out October 21 on Team Love Records) gets at that unrestrained sense of possibility that floods your brain as a kid, realizing that you don’t have to keep doing whatever everyone around you has done, and opening yourself up to the potential for anything.
Falana herself describes it well: “With the song ‘Cool Kids’ my intentions are really to acknowledge what I already see happening…kids coming out of their shells, people letting themselves dream big and follow a more creative career path, there’s more room now for everyone to be weird, be a nerd, struggle with social awkwardness but still get out to shows. I’m so inspired by the courage people have to expose their true self and not want to fit in, not want to look the same as their friends, feel like they will be safe dressing in drag at a straight bar.” Full of simple hooks and spacey guitars, it delivers a joyous kick of righteous rock, one of the sunniest spots on an album that includes gauzy melodies, dark moody pop, and droning distorted keys.