2021 has been a somewhat special year for Long Beach indie-popsters Sweet Nobody, although it wasn’t really meant to be. Back in September, the band finally released their second album, We’re Trying Our Best, which was originally scheduled for release in the Summer of 2020. As with so many people’s plans though, things for Sweet Nobody got waylaid by the ever-changing nature of life in the times of Corona Virus. Listening to We’re Trying Our Best it in some ways feels almost prophetic, its themes of living with challenges, feeling damaged and finding hope in the support of your nearest and dearest couldn’t really be more appropriate for the world into which it was birthed. With We’re Trying Our Best getting a well-deserved physical release via Relief Map Records, today the band are premiering one of the two bonus tracks that accompany the release, Disturbance.

While it might be presented as a bonus track, Disturbance instantly strides beyond any concerns that it might be a mere stopgap. The track arrives with vocalist Joy Deyo accompanied by thrashed, reverberating guitar chords, before the galloping drums enter, sending the song spiralling onward, like a twisting, turning musical roller-coaster. Particularly great throughout is the strutting guitar line, which manages to walk the surprisingly effective middle ground of surf-pop and flamenco.

Lyrically, Disturbance is typical Sweet Nobody, the sweetness in Joy’s voice belying her acerbic words as she cuts down a time-wasting suitor, “you were trying for months just to make my life harder, whilst declaring yourself my ardent admirer”. Ultimately perhaps the track is a summation of the whirlwind someone can bring into your life, even if it’s someone you were never particularly wooed by in the first place, “I didn’t want to be your girlfriend or your wife, so you caused a disturbance”.

A fine addition to an album that was already well worth the wait, Disturbance is a reminder of the sheer joy that Sweet Nobody bring to their music. They might touch on difficult themes, yet they celebrate coming through them, they’re trying their best and where Sweet Nobody are concerned, that’s more than good enough.

We’re Trying Our Best is out now, with the cassette release available to order via Relief Map Records, and due to ship early next year. For more information on Sweet Nobody visit https://sweet-nobody.bandcamp.com/.