Mynd Reader’s new EP, Sunday Drive, is out October 16th via Spaceflight Records. The collection is the perfect soundtrack for a Fall road trip, especially the first song on the EP, “Still Uncertain”. The collection is acoustic, with touches of rock, blues, roots, and country.
The EP pairs acoustic reworkings from their debut with new material, bridging the gap to their next studio album, due summer 2027.
The first song on the EP, “Still Uncertain” starts with acoustic guitar, where listeners can hear one of my favorite sounds an acoustic guitar can make from the strumming and scratchyness of the strings as they slide and vibrate across the fret board.
According to Singer Brian Sachs, “Still Uncertain” was inspired by an overnight drive with a bandmate who has since passed and the realization that there is no certainty in life. Sachs says the song is “about our youth, and still uncertain until the chorus goes, ‘We’re a long, long way till certainty arrives here.’ Perhaps that certainty is also our finite experience here on Earth for all of us.”
Sachs adds a country twang to the track, touching upon the vulnerability of losing connection with someone you once loved with lyrics “Well I moved away, but we never lost touch / even though we haven’t / spoken that much”.
I love when the guitar and drums get quieter with lyrics “It’s those moments in life / when you feel most alive / too big to take in / and they age like wine” and starts to pick back up with lyrics “and I can go back and revisit it all / in my mind, in my mind, in my mind’s eye”. The lyrics and the way the second “in my mind” raises by a half step and third by a whole step is my favorite part of the song, showing how even though they may never see each other again, the memories still hold true.
Another cool thing about the song is that it starts and ends with the same lyrics “you and I traveling on the interstate / feeling like the only people awake / got the world to ourselves for at least 134 miles” like a looping story that will be retold again.
“Straight On Through” has a softer and darker acoustic sound with the guitar, incorporating muted strums. With lyrics “Take a leap into the great unknown / Hell we ain’t got no control / I got a pocket full of faith riding with me” hitting hard, because everyday has an unknown outcome, and sometimes we have to push “straight on through” them.
One of my favorite songs on the album, “Radio Warning”, has a great melody in the chorus “I ain’t ever going back again, I got this belly full of love and heart built to win”. I also love the vocal run on the word “home” from lyrics “This whole house / well it shure ain’t a home”, and the overall topic of how life can be hard, and that “These days you don’t hear much joy and laughter”. The track gets fuller toward the end, with a killer guitar solo and metallic slides on the fret board.
Take a listen to Sunday Drive out October 16th via Regime Music Group, and hear “Still Uncertain” here.
