Single Review: Bandit - Peppermints Don't Hide Everything

Emerging band Bandit have released their first single of 2021, ‘Peppermints Don’t Hide Everything’.

The new track is 166 seconds of pure indie goodness, a crashing wave of heavy drums and fizzing guitar riffs. ‘Peppermints Don’t Hide Everything’ navigates the adventures and late night youthful excursions. There’s a sense of reckless abandon that is captured at the heart of a song about the excitement of new relationships. That embodiment of exuberant adolescence is matched with its consciousness of peter pan syndrome: they ‘tell you to grow up but it’s a trap, cos once you are old, you cant come back.’

Whilst the lyrics carry you through a story of mischief and lust, you can note the same feeling is evoked through the instrumentation and melodies. It’s energetic and magnetic, and the song has enjoyment and life at its core that is matched so successfully with poetic lyrical accompaniments. Yet, even with its playful lyrics, ’you’re the only lover I want under the covers’, there is still a sentiment of romance throughout. A feeling of you and me against the world, and its nod to Bonnie and Clyde; that modern-take on relationships is familiar.

The song lives through its northern accents and witty lyrics. It is animated and dynamic, perhaps to match the sentiments of playful chaos expressed in the lyrics. It doesn’t hold back. Bandit have managed to harness a sound that represents the Saturday night feeling, it’s begging to be played live and is no doubt a song that’ll be stuck in your head for days.

Words: Lizzie Shaw