The room feels alive on The Open Up, the follow-up to 2022's The Bees and Frog Eyes' 10th studio album. Not only is it alive, but you're in it with the Victoria-formed indie rock institution as they perform the 10-track opus live off the floor.
There's an intimacy — a humanity — with which these uneasy songs take hold, sometimes facing the world with little more than singer-guitarist Casey Mercer's wiry warble, sticking to a staccato syllable like a hiccup, and a pins-and-needles post-punk guitar progression.
"I'm a Little at a Loss" is just one such incidence, with Mercer repeating the relatable titular sentiment before the latter-half's recurrent realization: "Hold on / I wrote your favourite song." Subsequent track "I See the Same Things" begins with a more melodic approach to making similarly insular feelings common ground, as shimmering keys transition from the opening movement into a dozy, Destroyer-esque spoken second verse.
It culminates in an anthemic post-chorus, fading out into a noisy wall of distortion, with the greyscale vibrations pricking up the hair on the back of your neck like television static. Everything about The Open Up feels like a cold sweat we've all woken up alone with before. Exhibitionism on tenterhooks, Frog Eyes give an affirming nod to what we've survived up until this point — and remind us that we'll do it again.