CQ Corral: Worriers – “Top 5”
By Christopher Treacy
“Top 5” is the second single from a new Worriers album entitled Trust Your Gut – their second full length of 2023 – out September 15 ala Ernest Jenning Record Co. It’s a explosive indie rock track with some teeth-gritting anger that bolsters the chorus while focal point Lauren Denitzio anticipates some delicious schadenfreude.
Coming from a punk background, Worriers offer up a sound that balances modern production with an earnest, scrappier vibe. Written during lockdown, the sentiment expressed in “Top 5” is a cathartic mix of powerless anger, frustration and sadness. Denitzio did what they do best and wrote a song to help deal with the emotional torrent. “No routine is gonna keep you safe,” they declare, followed by “My faith is running with scissors/What with all the free time.” At times, Denitzio’s anger seems directed at one public figure in particular (yup, that one), but three years on, it could apply to any number of people that’ve shown themselves to be utter garbage.
“Top 5″ is a song that emerged from writing while isolated in the spring of 2020,” they explained in a press statement. “I wanted to capture the feeling of internal turmoil when we were burdened with myriad reasons to be angry and sad simultaneously. Through all of it, the light at the end of the tunnel was the celebration we’ll have when the person responsible for so much misery finally pays for it. It’s a song of heightened and conflicting emotions. “Top 5” is also one of the first on the record that I started writing on piano and organ, signifying a distinct shift in my writing and collaborative process at that time.
Also, who doesn’t love a lyric video with retro coffee mugs and a vintage salmon TV in the kitchen? It adds an air of whimsy to an otherwise sobering moment: “Top 5” takes you right back to the time it was written in. On the one hand, it helps us appreciate how far we’ve come in the three years since. And on the other…
CQ Corral is an emerging feature at Country Queer that will bring you new music several times weekly, culminating every two weeks in the CQ Roundup our readers have come to expect. If you think your work could be a good fit for coverage at CQ, fill out our submission form!
Christopher Treacy has been writing about music and the music industry for 20 years. He’s contributed to The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, and Berklee College of Music’s quarterly journal, as well as myriad LGBTQ+ outlets including the Edge Media Network, Between the Lines/Pride Source, Bay Windows and In Newsweekly. He’s the Managing Editor for CQ and lives in Waitsfield, VT.