REVIEW: Broadside - Nowhere, At Last
- Lou Viner-Flood
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
BROADSIDE has never been a band built for standing still. Over the past decade, the trio from Richmond, Virginia has treated pop‑rock less as a genre and more as a moving target, reshaping their sound with each release rather than settling into a familiar formula. Their palette spans the emotional volatility of Taking Back Sunday, the cinematic sheen of The Killers, the brooding grit of AFI, and the arena‑ready swagger of Kings of Leon - touchstones that emerge less as imitation and more as influences filtered through their own modern lens. With Oliver Baxxter at the mic, Domenic Reid on guitar, and Patrick Diaz handling bass and harmonies, BROADSIDE enters a pivotal new era with Nowhere At Last.
Cherry Red Ego Death opens the album, lyrically and musically as it means to go on. With heavy guitars from Reid and Diaz, and lyrics that have Baxxter lamenting he’s ‘become unlovable, waiting for somebody to rescue me’, the track is one of those openers that gets you excited for what else is coming your way. Title track Nowhere At Last follows, with an unexpected 80’s electro feel, where Baxxter sings that he is “finally nowhere, at last”. The lyrics give an insight into the incoming paranoia that we feel throughout the rest of the album, where the narrator opens up his inner thoughts to us.
Warning Signs captures the irresistible chaos of a relationship you know is toxic but can’t bring yourself to leave. The track circles that familiar emotional loop with sharp precision and when Oliver Baxxter admits that “the same high that gets me off will probably put me in my grave,” it becomes the track’s defining admission. The track sits in the band’s sweet spot as a glossy, melodic pop‑rock anthem. It’s catchy, conflicted, and painfully self‑aware, which is BROADSIDE at their most compelling. The second single from the album, Control Freak is a sharp, slow‑burning confrontation with emotional manipulation. Rather than focusing on the fallout, the track zeroes in on the precise moment of awakening, with the track featuring some of Baxxter’s most incisive writing. He describes the experience as “being controlled by someone else, the quiet violence of being told it’s all in your head.” The phrase quiet violence captures the song’s entire emotional architecture.
Dead Roses presents itself as a self deprecating confession with the narrator slipping into a familiar negative headspace, fully aware he’s edging toward “an early grave” if he doesn’t pull himself out. It is one of the heavier tracks on the album, pairing this with melodic lift, turning self‑reckoning into something quietly hopeful. Someone You Need is tender, bruised, and painfully human. The track is one of the band’s most vulnerable moments as a raw, self‑reckoning pop‑rock confession about wanting to be enough for someone while feeling fundamentally broken. The track opens with the devastating admission, “I wish I could give you all of me, But I’m just pieces of a man I used to be,” setting the tone for everything that follows. BROADSIDE wraps that honesty in a melodic, aching pop‑rock frame, letting Baxxter’s voice lean into fragility rather than force.
Returning to the earlier 80’s electro pop feel at the midpoint of the album, the lyrics of Mushroom Cloud talks about waiting for the end of the world with your love, with Baxxter admitting “To die next to you would be heavenly”. It is potentially the only track on the album that doesn’t quite fit with the rest; despite the “impending doom”, it seems like the track with the most upbeat feeling, which catches the listener off guard a little. I Think They Know plunges us straight back into the spiralling, anxious inner monologue, capturing the band at their most paranoid and self‑interrogating. The track traces the contours of social anxiety and the fear of being watched, “I don’t belong here, everyone’s staring, I swear” drifting into dissociation. Intrusive thoughts take shape as voices on the radio, a recurring motif that blurs the line between what is real and what is imagined, with the production mirroring that feeling. Oliver Baxxter’s vocals swing between tight restraint and unravelling emotion and an urgent, pulsing rhythm section drives the track like a racing heartbeat, while atmospheric guitars wrap everything in a tense, fog‑like haze.
Blissed Out is a meditation on burnout, disillusionment, and the emotional crash that follows years spent chasing every possible high. The track traces the narrator’s slow unravelling: the exhaustion of constantly trying to be “enough,” The track pairs BROADSIDE’s melodic pop‑rock instincts with a heavier emotional weight, with a mid‑tempo, reflective pulse anchoring the song, while atmospheric guitars drift like emotional fog around Baxxter’s voice. The chorus lands with a mix of resignation and clarity, and Baxxter leans into vulnerability rather than urgency, letting the cracks show. Track Dark Passenger was unveiled alongside the album announcement and sets the emotional tone for Nowhere, At Last with a shadowy, introspective punch. The track dives into the inner shadow of anxiety and depression, tracing the exhaustion that comes from fighting the same harmful patterns over and over. The track is atmospheric and emotionally heavy, blending the band's nostalgic rock influences with a sharper modern edge, resulting in a brooding, cinematic track.
What Are You Leaving Behind is perhaps the darkest track on the album, both lyrically and musically. The track is another confessional admission from the narrator, with “I know what it feels like to want to walk away when nothing feels right, not enough to make you stay” giving further insight into the dark corners of his mind. The guitars from Reid and Diaz mirror the darkness of the lyrics in a perfectly complimentary way. Closing track Is This It is the final lament of the narrator, the last chance he has to tell us his story. It lands heavy; with Baxxter asking “Is there a right way to cope? Is there a cure to being alone?” and wanting to know if there is more to “this”. The track is an open and honest reflection into mortality, which bookends Nowhere At Last expertly.
Nowhere At Last captures BROADSIDE at their most grounded and self‑aware, reflecting on movement, identity, and the quiet clarity that comes from finally arriving after years spent searching. Where earlier releases sketched the blueprint, Nowhere At Last feels like the culmination, shaped by experience and rooted in a deeper understanding of who they have become. It’s a meditation on the physical, emotional, and creative place, with the realisation that sometimes “nowhere” is exactly where things start to make sense.
With a packed touring schedule ahead including a set at Slam Dunk Festival, BROADSIDE stands on the edge of their most impactful chapter yet: fearlessly evolving, unapologetically themselves, and more certain than ever of the path they’re carving.
Score: 9/10
Nowhere, At Last will be released on 10th April 2026 via Thriller Records.
Words: Lou Viner-Flood
Photos: Broadside
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