Nunemaker’s Swingset breaks the musical monotony that Everybody’s Worried About Owen is accustomed to while still turning emotional trainwrecks into music.

Everybody’s Worried About Owen is a solo project by Owen Trawick. He started releasing music during Covid quarantine, and the emotional tonality of their music has consistently reflected that. 

Trawick’s new release adds more variety, expanding upon folk punk influences to a more mature sound. 

The track “How Do You Talk to a Star” takes an abstract perspective on interconnectivity. Trawick establishes a metaphor comparing the person they want to connect with to a star and then wonders how to “keep yourself safe from all that heat.”

The song puts physical and emotional barriers to connection into a metaphor that is more tangible and profound. The music behind the song is gentle but grows to a beautiful climatic moment celebrating human relationships. 

The next song, “Alexandria Burning,” takes a less hopeful perspective. 

The song focuses on the feeling of hopelessness many young adults are feeling about the future. It especially focuses on a feeling of betrayal compared to what they dreamed life would be like. 

“Sally’s Interlude” is a stripped-down lyrical callback to an earlier song. In “For Sad Strange Little Men,” the somber lyrics felt out of place, but within this quiet context, the words echo a feeling of being lost within oneself. 

The slow interlude transitions into “Nunemaker’s Parable,” an angrier tune with more punk influences. The song focuses on the feeling of losing home and being unable to find a place in the world. 

Ambient sounds and Trawick’s voice add a lot of emotion and depth to the song and it works well, especially in contrast to many of Everybody’s Worried About Owen’s slower, depressing songs. 

Nunemaker’s Swingset has a light musicality anyone could enjoy, but it maintains a depressing outlook on the world.