Well now, here’s The Flying Beets with their single “I See Through You,” and it lands with the distinct thud of knowing something you almost wish you didn’t. Singer/guitarist Nathan Waller, flanked by David Cross on bass and Steven Clements on drums, crafts an alt-rock sound here that feels less like soaring rebellion and more like pacing anxiously in a beautifully furnished, yet soundproof, room.

Waller possesses one of those voices that seems capable of threading a needle or shattering a window pane, often within the same phrase. It’s deployed here not just for power, but to convey a specific, weary clarity. The song tackles that particular type of relationship vertigo where you perceive the other person with a kind of X-ray vision – spotting the defense mechanisms, the predictable retreats into silence, the subtle manipulations – while they remain stubbornly opaque, unwilling or unable to simply be seen. It’s like perfectly understanding the complex wiring diagram for a device that refuses to turn on. Utterly maddening.

There’s a tightness in the Fort Worth trio’s interplay, a kind of coiled energy that mirrors the lyrical theme. The rhythm section builds the walls of this dynamic, while Waller’s guitar lines sketch the frustrated attempts to peer over them. Listening, I was suddenly reminded of trying to tune an old shortwave radio late at night – straining to catch a clear signal through layers of static, catching glimpses of meaning but never the whole, clear transmission. The exasperation is palpable; it’s the sound of knowing exactly where the hidden catch is on a box, yet being unable to spring it open.

“I See Through You” doesn’t offer easy resolution, mirroring the emotional deadlock it describes. It leaves you suspended in that moment of clear sight but blocked connection. What, then, do you do with perfect vision if the view never changes?

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