Salt Lake City-based “rowdy, acoustic alt” band Cinders releases their third album “No One’s Home” to remind listeners to dance their troubles away.

Progression to Party

“No One’s Home” is Cinders’ first album as a trio, the group being comprised of drummer Brad Bennett, bassist Adrian De La Cruz, and guitarist and vocalist Montana Smith. Smith and De La Cruz met while at Brighton High School and discovered Bennett accidentally over Instagram. Although the three stem from vastly differing musical backgrounds, they come together to produce their signature “punk-inspired pop” sound.

“Our three full-length albums that we’ve released have kind of been on a progression from indie-folk … to fun upbeat jumpy rock,” Smith said. “It’s definitely much more energetic … Those are our favorite songs to play live.” This energetic and carefree energy is no exception in “No One’s Home,” but takes on a whole new meaning after the year that was 2020.

Dancing Through It

“Sometimes it feels like everything hits at once … Around the beginning of 2020 it was one of those times,” Smith said. The band recounts this feeling in track “Rockbottom,” with the lyrics, “How far down does this rock bottom go?”

“We kind of joke about how depressing this album is if you just look at the lyrics,” Smith said, but the band’s energetic acoustic sound juxtaposes tastefully with the album’s somber lyrics. In fact, “Rockbottom” features a jazz interlude, indicative of De La Cruz’s time in Jazz Studies at the University of Utah, that subverts lyrics of grief.

Tracks “Growing Up” and “A Fix of Nostalgia” present a vibrant reminiscent flair while “Crashes and Crumbles” hits us with that all-too-real ache of hard times. The album emerges from individual darkness within a world crisis, and as De La Cruz says, “Let’s get out and recreate what we had before.” Fittingly, the album ends with an optimistic track entitled “Still Alive.”

In It Together

“For us, it was kind of a double meaning,” Smith said on the album’s title “No One’s Home.” On one hand, the title refers to a time when we were all stuck inside our homes in lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, it’s, “the idea of trying, dancing, and singing like no one is home,” Smith said. “Nobody is there to tell you not to do it, or to tell you you’re doing it too loud.”

This dichotomy aligns with the band’s aim at making their songs open-ended for listeners. “We had what we felt when we wrote it, but we like to write songs that even for the same person they hit differently every time you listen to it,” De La Cruz said. Much like the band’s audio progression into its current sound, Cinders wants their album to grow and resonate with each listener individually. “Hearing someone sing about the words you think in your head is a very comforting feeling,” Smith said. “Yeah, this is a downer, but it’s nice to know that I’m not alone.” The band’s skillful blending of real-life lyrics with bumping instrumentals urges listeners to accept what life throws and party through rough times. 

The double meaning shines through, as Cinders’s “No One’s Home” compels us to know we are not alone but to dance like no one is watching. Check out Cinders’ website, Spotify and all social medias @cindersmusic.

[email protected]

@theaveinaverge