Boy Harsher released GET MEAN yesterday. Start with “Hard Beat”, the cleanest test of whether the record’s severe synth-pop and physical pulse belong in your weekend.
The duo frames the album around love, loss, survival and redemption; the 12-track record runs 39 minutes, short enough to remain an album rather than a research project. Official album and credits
This lands close to the darker end of the Chromatics/LCD axis without sounding like a tasteful imitation of either. The draw is the tension between Jae Matthews’s cool vocal presence and music built to move a room. If “Hard Beat” works, continue straight through rather than cherry-picking the singles.