B-Side Guys

Polaroid Fade’s “Any Other Way” conjures romance from thin air, creating an anthem for imaginary love that manages to be both self-aware and genuinely affecting. The South Jersey outfit has crafted something remarkable here – a dream pop track that acknowledges its own unreality while making you wish it were true.

The song’s opening line “You always work the chaos into poetry” serves double duty, describing both the fictional beloved and the band’s approach to composition. The post-punk drive doesn’t just provide momentum – it creates emotional counterpoint to lyrics that could otherwise drift into pure fantasy.

What’s particularly striking is how the track navigates between specific detail and imaginative projection. Lines like “I picture you a barista or an astronaut” don’t just establish the love interest’s fictional nature – they capture the way longing can attach itself to random possibilities. The arrangements mirror this duality, blending new wave precision with dream pop’s comfortable haziness.

The chorus’s insistence that they “wouldn’t have it any other way” takes on different meaning with each repetition, as if the narrator is trying to convince themselves that imagination might be preferable to reality. It’s here that Polaroid Fade demonstrates real songwriting sophistication, using repetition to suggest obsession rather than mere emphasis.

Most impressive is how the band handles the pop culture references. The mention of “Heathers” isn’t just period-appropriate name-dropping – it’s character development in miniature, suggesting both shared sensibilities and the way we often craft idealized versions of connection through mutual dislikes.

The production creates space for both the fantasy and its underlying melancholy. When the lyrics describe philosophical brooding, the instrumental backing shifts subtly, allowing room for the kind of contemplation being described while maintaining the track’s forward momentum.

References to “cutting lawns or writing manuscripts” feel less like random examples and more like glimpses into the narrator’s own desires and projections. The band’s ability to make these details feel simultaneously specific and universal speaks to their understanding of how longing works – it’s always personal, even when it’s completely imagined.

As Polaroid Fade prepares for their debut album Chaos Into Poetry in fall 2024, “Any Other Way” suggests they’ve already mastered something crucial: the ability to make unrequited love feel like a legitimate alternative to the real thing, at least for the length of a song.