We are pleased to premiere “It’s Not Easy” from the new EP by New York’s Dolly Spartans, Time Sides With No One, out March 31 via Blue and Lucky. The song and the record from which it is culled were inspired by personal tragedy. In 2016, Spartans guitarist Christopher Elmer died unexpectedly, spurring guitarist/vocalist Michael Eliran to express his grief through songwriting. That sense of loss and frustration can be heard across the EP and “It’s Not Easy” in particular. The track speaks to the pendulum swing from sadness to celebration and all the spaces in between. As Eliran himself says, “The song is about feeling overwhelmed when adapting to new stages in one’s life”
The group has garnered comparisons to acts such as the Strokes and Fidlar, and those seem apt. Fuzzy guitars and high-energy rhythms buoy the track along, but it’s boosted by wider emotional dynamics and a fully inhabited performance from Eliran who frequently calls to mind a deeply emotional Thom Yorke.
Rounded out by Jesse Barovick on guitar, drummer Steven Bartashev, and bassist Max Beirne-Shafer, the group has become a favorite of college radio and music lovers in and around the quartet’s home turf.