There’s something fitting about an album rooted in heartbreak being almost impossible to hear through the noise. On ROSEBUD, Current Joys, the solo project of Surf Curse’s Nick Rattigan, takes the vulnerability that has long defined his music and buries it beneath layers of distortion, glitchy electronics and explosive guitars. The result is a record that seems determined to make as much noise as possible, like trying to drown out any acknowledgement of pain.
Experimentation is hardly unfamiliar territory for Rattigan, whose discography has moved between lo-fi indie, darkwave and electronic music. Yet ROSEBUD appears to push this restless approach even further, drawing on everything from pop-punk and screamo to hyperpop and experimental hip-hop. Rather than abandoning the emotional foundations of his earlier work, Rattigan pushes them to the max.
On ‘CHAOS’, blown-out guitars and fragmented electronics threaten to swallow the melody entirely, with Rattigan seemingly lashing out through the noise. The contrast gives you whiplash: the song’s emotional uncertainty is reflected in a sound that feels equally unstable. Instead of offering you a straightforward moment of vulnerability, Rattigan makes you search for it beneath the drowning waves of distortion.
The album immediately moves onto ‘SUFFERER’, a much more restrained track, the distortion giving way to something much more tender. With its synthetic choir and softer textures adding layers to the album’s sense of loneliness, even the album’s quieter moments aren’t necessarily comforting. The sudden shift into quietness feels almost jarring. It’s like coming home after a night out, when the music has stopped but the static is still ringing in your ears. Alone with your thoughts, there’s nothing left to distract you from whatever you’ve been trying not to feel. And in these moments, the lonely individual at the centre of all the noise is revealed.
This constant back-and-forth between melancholy and frenetic energy runs throughout ROSEBUD. On ‘KNIGHT OF SWORDS’, the music seems to stumble over itself, the restless momentum creating instability. Like tripping while trying to run, the song struggles to keep up with the flood of its own emotions. Beneath the increasingly abrasive production, a simple guitar melody persists, giving a small reminder of the vulnerability at the album’s core.
There’s also something haunting about the almost childlike quality of Rattigan’s delivery on tracks like ‘Hole’. He sings, ‘There’s a hole inside my body / And I fill it up with dirt’. The simplicity of the lyrics feels at odds with the seriousness of what he’s singing about. A similar quality comes through in his voice on ‘STAY’, where that sense of innocence feels especially noticeable. This also comes through on ‘HALLOWEEN’, where children’s voices and cackling witch sound effects unsettle an otherwise melancholy track. Rather than diminishing the weight of the subject matter, these playful additions make it feel more exposed.
With such a wide range of influences ranging from punk and screamo to electronic music and hip-hop, ROSEBUD could easily have become a collection of competing ideas. Yet its themes of heartbreak, isolation and emotional uncertainty provide a thread connecting its unpredictable moments. The constant shifts in pace and intensity can be disorientating, but perhaps that’s part of the point. The album rarely allows you to settle comfortably into one feeling before pulling you towards another.
ROSEBUD presents an artist seemingly more interested in exploring the possibilities of his sound than settling into something familiar. The album is built around a contradiction: but beneath its abrasive exterior is the same emotional sensitivity that has always made Current Joys compelling, only this time it’s fighting to be heard.
Current Joys: ROSEBUD – Released 6 November 2026 (They Are Evil)
