Northern Irish artist Susi Pagel announces her forthcoming Worry Dolls EP, due for release on September 4, with new single ‘Part Of Me’. Drawing heavily from the pop-punk and alternative rock of the early noughties, the track combines chunky guitars, infectious melodies and plenty of nostalgia while exploring the feeling of finally finding somewhere – or someone – you belong.
‘Part Of Me’ hits hard from its opening seconds, launching straight into a grungy wall of guitars before settling into a driving alt-rock groove. There is an interesting divide between the instrumentation and Susi’s vocal: the heavier guitars carry shades of The Pretty Reckless, while her emotionally expressive delivery sits much closer to the pop-punk world of Paramore and Avril Lavigne. It all comes together in a suitably anthemic chorus built for singing along at full volume, capturing that particular combination of angst, melody and crunchy guitars that defined so much turn-of-the-millennium alternative rock. You could easily imagine it soundtracking the climactic scene of an early-noughties teen movie.
Speaking about the single, Susi explains: “This is a track about never feeling like you fit in anywhere, and finding that one person who makes you feel like you do. It’s a powerful song that I wrote at a time where I was feeling lost.” It’s a sentiment likely to resonate with anyone who has ever struggled to find their place, but even without digging into its deeper meaning, ‘Part Of Me’ succeeds as a punchy, nostalgic alt-rock anthem with enough modern weight to avoid feeling like a simple Y2K throwback.
