Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s are a band just as thought out and interesting as their name implies. Hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana they’ve been churning out music since 2005 and the band itself has been constantly evolving. They’ve gone from quiet indie introspective alt rock to heavier rock riffs and emotional yelling and back to the former since their inception and the sky seems to be the limit as to what they’ll do next.

Their latest creation is an album titled “Slingshot to Heaven” and visits their earlier quiet introspective sound while retaining the heavier elements of their latest album “Rot Gut Domestic.” It all blends together nicely to make an album that, despite having a quieter sound, begs to be played loud and true.

The album deals with relationships and love a bit more than some of their past releases. The first two songs of the album, titled “Hello San Francisco” and “When You’re Gone,” deal with the loneliness felt when you need someone to love. They’re the kind of songs that makes you want to cuddle up with a significant other or loved one as you realize just how small we all are in the world. Fear not, however, for the album is not without happiness. Songs like “Long Legged Blonde Memphis” and “Los Angeles” pick up the tempo from the slump the first couple might put you in. This kind of album structure is a pretty popular thing from Margot, as they tend to put you through a roller coaster of emotions with happy songs and sad songs coming at you from all directions.

The beauty of the songs comes from frontman Richard Edwards, whose songwriting is some of the best I’ve ever been witness too. One second he’ll be hitting you with metaphors that make you ponder your own life and the next he’s singing about every day things that snap you back into reality. In “Hello San Francisco” he sings, “Let’s throw our bones away and get happy babe, ‘cause I’m seeing blue again,” which puts you in the mood for existential metaphors and deep thoughts. Then in the next song he sings, “I miss you when you’re gone, but I get so much done. I get whole TV series watched,” which makes you chuckle in the sheer simplicity of it and how relatable it is. It’s this kind of thing that really clicks and makes you realize, despite his astute nature of coming up with complex metaphors for sadness and loneliness, Richard Edwards is still just a normal guy who loves and laughs and lives just as we do.

I’d love to touch upon all thirteen songs in the album, but I’m afraid this would turn into a twenty page novel instead of a quick review as each song brings something completely new to the table and requires multiple listens to fully grasp what Edwards is trying to say. The album contains songs of all different natures: love and loss, happiness and sadness, togetherness and loneliness. It’s the kind of album that is relatable on so many levels and every song will seem like it’s speaking to a very specific part in your life, and that’s what makes it beautiful.