Burgeoning emo rapper nothing.nowhere exposes the rawness of life

Predominantly coming to the forefront have been acoustic shows, giving us a glimpse into what little of their world the artist wishes us to see through their camera (mostly featuring a gold disc or two - well, you would, wouldn’t you?)

Not exempt from this MO is burgeoning emo-rapper Joe Mulherin, aka nothing.nowhere. Breaking apart his swirling lo-fi beats and digging into the emo heart that surrounded him growing up, Mulherin’s one take series saw just him and a guitar tackle fan favourites, stripping them back, exposing the raw nature of human hurt and understanding. This collection of each entry to the series sees them polished, but not to the point of removing the desolated feeling that echoed around the world during pandemic lockdown times, and in one handy place.

The main takeaway truly is that artists like nothing.nowhere are here to voice the visceral hurt that’s resided deep inside since our teenage years, and bounces around well into your twenties and beyond.

À la American Football (who he also wonderfully covers with “Never Meant”), twinkling and twirling soft electric guitar lines pirouette around themselves, while Mulherin spits “accentuating the pain” (“Wooden Home”), there’s something about the gear up in cadence, and rattling urgency from a forcefully strummed guitar, that finds that might taking hold and sweeping you away.

It also goes to show the talents of Mulherin and his lyricism, fitting somewhere between pop culture archivist and emo purist, when it’s all laid out bare bones there’s nothing to hide behind and the songs still carry a weight just as, if not more powerful than their original then you know you must be doing something right.