B-Side Guys

Isolation can manifest as both punishment and privilege. On “No Man’s Island,” Brooklyn trio SAVAK (pronounced SAH-vak) examines this duality with biting wit and subdued fury, creating a track that functions simultaneously as social critique and personal confession.

The song emerges as the standout single from their upcoming seventh album “SQUAWK!” (due May 30 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. & Peculiar Works Music), revealing a band ten years into their journey yet still expanding their sonic vocabulary. While their post-punk foundation remains intact, “No Man’s Island” ventures into unexplored territory, incorporating what band member Michael Jaworski describes as a “Lou Reed/Velvets vibe” enhanced by guest vocals from Tanisha Badman of West Yorkshire’s Goo.

What distinguishes the track is its surgical dissection of contemporary narcissism, using character studies to illuminate broader social fragmentation. The opening portrait of a once-successful figure (“Number one seller turned into an old yeller”) whose aggressive self-importance has poisoned personal relationships establishes immediate thematic coordinates. These character sketches accumulate throughout, creating a mosaic of disconnection—people cutting each other off in traffic, crisis entrepreneurs capitalizing on collapse, fashion brands serving as hollow identity markers.

Against this backdrop of societal unraveling, the chorus offers neither resolution nor escape but acknowledges the central paradox: “Your guilt lives rent free on no man’s island.” This recognition that even isolation carries its psychological burdens creates productive tension with the verses’ social observations.

Jaworski himself provides illuminating context: “It’s ultimately a song about feeling frustrated in a world where it seems personal gain and status is valued over human compassion and elevating the common good.” This sentiment crystallizes in the song’s most revealing line: “I’m floating out to sea and everybody is waving back to me”—a devastating image of chosen separation that questions whether the observer holds moral high ground or merely another form of privilege.

For a band composed of veterans from influential groups including Obits, The Cops, Holy Fuck, and Edsel, SAVAK brings remarkable freshness to familiar post-punk structures. The track’s production (mixed by Travis Harrison of Guided By Voices fame) balances clarity with just enough grit to support its thematic explorations of contemporary disillusionment.

When Jaworski describes the song as depicting “my search for enlightenment in the coming end times while trying to determine if it’s better to be on your own island or the one where everyone else is,” he captures the essential question facing not just himself but an entire generation navigating late capitalism’s choppy waters.