With ‘i’ll see you when the game resets’, Ottawa’s indie pop duo Wotts close out their EP FLANK! not with a grand crescendo, but with a gently cracked farewell- a lo-fi postcard from the edge of loss. It’s scrappy, sincere, and strangely soothing, capturing the essence of an emotional reset in a world that rarely lets us pause long enough to process.
Where earlier FLANK! singles leaned into synths and piano-driven melancholy, this final track strips everything back. Gritty guitars buzz like frayed memories, while Jayem’s understated vocals sit just left of centre, more confessional than performative. The track doesn’t try to be perfect- there’s comfort in its roughness. It feels like a sonic shrug that says, yeah, things fall apart, but maybe that’s where we start again.
Drawing on the DNA of Blur, Pavement, and early Strokes, ‘i’ll see you when the game resets’ channels that bittersweet fuzz of late-’90s and early-2000s alt-rock. The mix feels like it was captured through a cracked screen- just warped enough to evoke nostalgia without leaning too hard on it. And that title? It’s more than a clever metaphor. It’s a prayer for continuity in the face of change, a digital-age mantra for those who’ve learned that the end of one story doesn’t mean the next won’t be worth reading.
Jayem and Ricky 100 have built something quietly special with FLANK!- a record that wanders through grief without collapsing under its weight. There’s sadness here, sure. But also flickers of hope, flashes of humour, and the occasional sonic grin hiding behind a chorus. It’s an EP about pretending to be okay until you are, about accepting the ghosts that hang around and maybe even inviting them to dance.
Wotts aren’t pressing pause. They’re not rewinding either. They’re reloading, reimagining, and hitting start on the next level. And if ‘i’ll see you when the game resets’ is any indication, they’ve already figured out the most important part: how to fall apart beautifully, and find your way back through the noise.