Blackberry Crush - My Own Backyard

​Blackberry Crush

My Own Backyard
self-released; 2025

TOP ALBUM

By Matt Jensen

Blackberry Crush open My Own Backyard with the confidence of a band that knows exactly where they come from and where they want to go. The Denver quartet folds shoegaze textures and post-grunge grit into something both heavy and melodic, a sound that hums with longing and tension. Released by the DIY label Mean World Records, the five-song EP looks at growing up through a distorted lens of childhood wonder bleeding into adult exhaustion, the ache of wanting to be older trading places with the wish to turn back time. It’s a record about the in-between, about the hum of nostalgia that never quite fades no matter how loud the guitars get.

“Honey, Honey” sets the tone immediately, a rush of feedback and fuzz that hits with the weight of a humid summer memory. The song’s focus is squarely on the instruments, the vocals tucked deep in the mix, more texture than message. That choice gives it a dreamlike distance, somewhere between Sonic Youth’s dissonant chaos and the glazed sweetness of early shoegaze like The Jesus and Mary Chain. “Botulist” sharpens the edges, pulling from the tension of Nirvana and the widescreen scope of My Bloody Valentine. There’s a sense of catharsis in its layered noise and a sort of melodic chaos that manages to sound both reckless and controlled.

“With/Without,” the EP’s arguable standout, channels technical precision without losing its raw pulse. The rhythm section carries a sense of propulsion beneath the fog of distortion, the bass lines especially grounding the chaos in something muscular and deliberate. “The Fool” sort of slows things down and creates something that feels like its yearning for transcendence. It’s expansive and emotive without tipping into sentimentality. And “Sheriff” closes the collection with its heaviest swing, a track that crashes forward until the final seconds, leaving behind a kind of exhausted satisfaction.

My Own Backyard captures Blackberry Crush at a pivotal moment, turning familiar influences into something vivid and distinctly their own. This EP was made for a 90’s kid like me and appreciated the amalgamation of influences. It melded a lot of the alternative, grunge and shoegaze bands I grew up on while also doing enough to establish their own frequency.

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