There’s something so compelling about Plain Drifter’s latest release, Cracks in the Mirror. It sounds good, obviously. The guitars bite, the melodies know exactly how to make you stay. But underneath all that is something that is harder to fake: vulnerability. The kind of vulnerability that a lot of rock records seem to have forgotten how to leave room for.
Plain Drifter is Sam Lillicrap’s homegrown rock project, built from guitars, hooks, and honest songwriting in his Sunshine Coast home studio. He’s now back with a new single that sits with self-doubt and fractured confidence.
The guitars from the start immediately tell you that there’s more to this than good riffs. There’s tension, the kind that thrives and becomes more evident through restraint. Nothing feels overplayed in here, as if it’s leaving space for the vocals to create more friction and unease.
Plain Drifter’s writing is where the track gets under your skin. Think of that grey, draining space between knowing something is wrong and pretending it isn’t. “I keep my head up. I play the part,” is one of the simplest lines, but Lillicrap makes it sound so damn human. Nothing grand, nothing overexplained: just that quiet exhaustion and that endless attempt to convince everyone, including yourself, that you’ve got it all together.
If this is a peek at their forthcoming album, All Roads Lead To This, then it’s safe to say the road ahead looks promising.
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