B-Side Guys

The Thames Estuary sits at the edge of London, where the city gives way to something wider and less managed. First Day of Spring’s songwriter returned to that coastline during the writing of this track, and “THE RIVIERA (MODERN NATURE)” carries that specific geography: the calmness gained from a place that existed before whatever the song is trying to resolve.

The lyric is structured around reassurance that hasn’t fully arrived yet. ‘It’s gonna be okay / it’s gonna be alright’ is repeated twice before the bridge while the narrator is still lying on their face and feeling out of space. The rolling wheels of chance pave the way for something the narrator has been told rather than something they’ve seen.

The lo-fi rock and post-punk production gives the track a physical energy that sits in productive tension with the lyric’s search for stillness. First Day of Spring have been shifting their sound across a continually evolving lineup since their London formation, and the HUMANFLESH series of singles represents their current arrangement finding its register: expansive and restless, with enough forward momentum to make the calm feel earned rather than assumed.

“Modern nature” is the phrase that holds the song’s argument. Whatever serenity the estuary offered, it’s filtered through contemporary experience rather than preserved from it. The mountain is real. The climb is still ahead.