B-Side Guys

The violation happens casually: someone photographs you in the shower without consent. Band of 4 opens “A Sense Of Wonder” with this immediate transgression, then spirals outward into broader questions about surveillance, digital consumption, and the strange disconnect between physical bodies and their online representations. The Zurich quartet—formed in 2023 from cosmopolitan musicians raised on Kasabian, Muse, New Order, and Arctic Monkeys—treats serious subject matter with danceable urgency, refusing to let heavy themes kill momentum.

Their post-punk and new wave foundations show in how they balance groove with discomfort. Sinuous basslines and hard-hitting rhythms drive the track forward while the lyrics examine our relationship with screens and the bodies that appear on them. The repeated questioning—will you feel alive with someone else’s face beneath your feet, with strangers wandering across your screen—points to the numbing effect of endless content consumption. Band of 4 specifically calls out casual cruelty: finding entertainment in someone’s distress, the algorithmic amplification of suffering for engagement.

The phrase “our body’s just a lie, we use it as a sleeve” reframes physical existence as something disposable or decorative, separate from whatever constitutes the actual self. This feeds into the broader anxiety running through the song: if everything becomes content, do our dreams themselves become memes, flattened into shareable units stripped of personal meaning? The vocals remain expressive and hook-heavy despite the darkness underneath, maintaining the infectious quality that defines their approach.

Band of 4’s combination of atmospheric guitar work and strategic synth deployment creates that vibrant nocturnal metropolis feeling they aim for—urban, restless, alive with movement even as the lyrics dissect how digital spaces can make us feel more disconnected than connected. The insistent refrain about letting go functions as both plea and recognition: you need to release this poison, but the screens keep pulling you back in. They’ve crafted something deliberately contradictory—music that makes you want to move while examining why movement alone can’t resolve the underlying unease.