I remember when the video for Nine Black Alps’ ‘Unsatisfied’ was the band’s new video playing regularly on MTV2. I didn’t want to watch it, because singer/guitarist Sam Forrest’s glum face would appear on the screen, the first thing you see, and I would be bummed out almost immediately. I would have been 10 years old, and I didn’t want to see someone looking so unhappy. So I would switch channels and see what other things were on. I think the track might have been the first one that made me aware of the band’s existence. But I wasn’t sticking around if a gap of silence and a sad mug was my introduction to their music. My opinion on Nine Black Alps as a whole changed when the advert for the band’s album Everything Is started showing in places. ‘Not Everyone’ sounded cool in it. My opinion on ‘Unsatisfied’ was officially made for the better, funnily enough, ’cause of its inclusion in a pivotal scene in One Tree Hill. Why was I watching that show? Two words: Older sister. The song sounded very cool in that scene, though. Made me think, “That’s what ‘Unsatisfied’ sounds like?” Clearly, not watching its music video meant I had missed out a little.

But then I got Everything Is as a present, and I could listen to the song whenever I wanted. ‘Unsatisfied’ is the fourth song on there. The intro builds, layer-by-layer. Guitarist David Jones opens with the higher guitar riff, Sam Forrest joins in with the lower one, and then Martin Cohen and James Galley come in together on bass and drums. The classic brick-by-brick opening technique. Then Sam Forrest sings about trying to get something out of the world as much as possible, but always ending up empty-handed. He’s unsatisfied. Sick and tired of all he’s tried. And that’s really all the song comes down to. Being disappointed with what this world has on offer and having a feeling that things would be better in another lifetime. A downer in the subject theme, yes. But it’s still all so melodic despite what may be going on in the words. And the riffage and power behind the performance? Very emphatic. That rundown during the “Sick and tired…” part of the chorus, one of my favourite parts of the entire song. And then there’s that sudden key change for the “Should look where you’re going” bridge. A bit unexpected. But it’s the surprise that makes it that much better.

The song got to number 30 in the UK Singles chart in its time. Makes me think what happened. The charts used to have such a variety. I don’t know what goes on in them anymore. And if you may or may not have noticed, me writing about ‘Unsatisfied’ means that I’ve written about every song from Everything Is on here. A clean sweep, royal flush. I think this may be the first time that’s ever happened on the blog, writing about all the songs on one album. I think Everything Is is great, it hasn’t aged a bit. A ten outta ten in my book. The band always got compared to Nirvana back in the day, which I think critics always used to bring them down a little. This was in the middle of the whole post-punk revival era. Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, they were the bands that got people talking. I never got the Nirvana comparison, but I guess an American-sounding band from the UK wasn’t what was the masses wanted, even if they were doing what they did very well. But it Nine Black Alps apart, for sure. ‘Cause of that, I don’t think “This is England in the mid-2000s” when I’m listening to Everything Is. I just hear some good, fast and heavy melodic rock, with a couple acoustic numbers in there for mellowing’s sake. So it’s my recommendation that anyone reading this, if you’re into that sort of stuff, go and hear it. I’ve written about it on 12 different occasions, for goodness sake, it’s worth it.