There’s something special about Feeling Not Found, the latest album from Origami Angel. I’d been following the Washington, D.C. based pop-punk, emo duo since my friend Mal put me on to their debut album, Somewhere City. Upon hearing the 2019 album, it’s as if the spirit of my older brother’s iPod library, with songs by Motion City Soundtrack and All Time Low, had suddenly manifested itself into the crummy speakers of my iPhone earbuds and back into my life. This time though, I wasn’t being driven home from elementary school in the backseat of a 2004 Honda Odyssey. Somewhere City got me hooked on the Origami Angel hype. Seeing them live at Gabe’s here in Iowa City a couple of Aprils ago was as exhilarating of a concert experience as it could be, complete with a thrashing pit.
Origami Angel’s Feeling Not Found stays true to their ethos of deeply expressive, raw emo rockers; all with a tinge of geeky goodness. Opening with as soft-spoken of a track as “Lost Signal”, they immediately contrast it well in “Dirty Mirror Selfie” with gritty guitar riffs, passionately vulnerable vocals and lyrics that follow. The harmonic changes in songs like “Where Blue Light Blooms” and “Living Proof” flow into the ears the way butter spreads so easily on bread. Guitarist and vocalist Ryland Heagy’s tenor voice fits the bill of a classic emo-rock whine, which is nothing short of impressive. Drummer Pat Doherty’s versatile chops also remain top notch. Everything up until “Fruit Wine”, I just can’t get enough of.
From a songwriting standpoint, both Heagy and Doherty are at the top of their game so far. It’s lines like “Tell me something good, I wanna smile one more time/Tell me I’ll be safe from the virus in my mind” from the track “Viral” that complement the emo instrumentals well. “Fruit Wine”, “Dirty Mirror Selfie”, and “Where Blue Light Blooms” were the singles released ahead of the album’s release on September 27th. At the same time, these are also among the standout tracks. These are the tunes that in my journey with this album have stuck with me the most. However, tracks like “secondgradefoofight”, “HM07 Waterfall”, and the album’s title track are so much more lightweight than the first half of the album. While the second half’s tracks add their fair share with respect to the album as a cohesive unit, they were only as good to me as their first few listens. They’re nowhere near as memorable as the first half of the album.
As you could probably tell from the titles of the tracks, Feeling Not Found is based on the isolation and disillusionment in the digital age of today. The question is, does the album tackle the subject well? So much of its lyrics are far from contrived and feel like candid glimpses into the digital lens of Ryland and Doherty. I applaud the creative commentary on the internet age we find ourselves in as social media and doom scrolling are a couple of major topics explored. They even cleverly tackle the struggle for Spotify artist’s pay in the track “Sixth Cents (Get It?)”. I can’t help but feel nostalgic in “Where Blue Light Blooms”, as it harkens back to a more innocent time where CRT displays may as well have kept the vast frontiers of unexplored webpages condensed into a singular box — “Just waiting for the cue to go outside/So I can lock up every single door and/Hide behind these firewalls.”
“Underneath My Skin” tells the story of being caught in the crosshairs of social media anxiety, expressing concerned over arbitrary follower and like counts with a line like, “Bigger number, better person/Bigger picture, better mercenary tactics get you where you wanna be.” Origami Angel is sharing these experiences with the listener, an audience of people who’ve also been raised by the internet. They have astutely centered their writing beyond this album on having grown up in the 21st century, and it’s no wonder their fanbase gel with that. In Feeling Not Found, they and their audience are now a group of digital mountain men reminiscing on what was, and at the same time, resenting the development of what that land has become now; the Las Vegas strip that is big tech.
The album excellently captures the rage we feel living in these virtual times. However, while jamming to tracks like “Where Blue Light Blooms” and “Underneath My Skin” today, I’m curious to see where this album finds itself in discussion thinking back on the 2020s. Does Feeling Not Found explore these themes beyond the frustrations we feel with it now? Not so much. Of course, this album falls under emo, so why wouldn’t there be such raw emotion and whine in the lyrics and vocals? But when I think about living in the digital age, there’s more to be said outside of the anxiety we feel wasting time in front of screens. This album just speaks so much in the present tense.
Origami Angel’s audience, with them being perhaps late Millenial or early Gen-Z in age, are still so young. We’ve still got a lot to live for, and we’ve grown up like this for damn near our whole lives. This album doesn’t show much on what they think this anxiety now will mean in future. They’ve invested so much in the concept that I’m not sure what stopped them from exploring even a tad further. Their writing chops have blossomed so much since Somewhere City, and these dudes totally have the wits to go even further in the concept album department. In this candid conversation with Origami Angel, I’m curious to know their opinion on where we’re headed in the future, because as far as Feeling Not Found is concerned, they’re too busy moping about the now.
Nevertheless, I have a feeling that this album has the capacity to be an important, if not at least interesting time capsule for our frustrations on the trials and tribulations surrounding social media use, especially for us Gen-Z folk. It still covers heaps of emotional ground on the topic, while supplying a stellar deal of mosh material that’ll last fans years (I really want to get my foot broken next time I show up to a Origami Angel gig). For fans of Origami Angel, this album is right on par with Somewhere City and will for sure keep you satisfied. For patrons of pop-punk or emo, as well as all those feeling some lost signal themselves, Origami Angel’s Feeling Not Found is well worth your time.
