Issues Post Acoustic Version of “Tapping Out”

I discovered Issues’ magnificent 2019 album Beautiful Oblivion just a bit late for it to make it onto my best of the year list, but had I dove in just a couple of weeks sooner it absolutely would’ve ranked in the top half. What if Michael Jackson played djent? Ask yourself that question and you’ve got an approximation for what the album sounds like.

Issues have now released a studio acoustic version of one of the album’s standout tracks, “Tapping Out,” and it’s put the song into a new light for me, bringing the lyrics to the forefront. We’ve all been in a toxic relationship in which we’re pushed to the brink, used and abused, and we finally decide to tap out even though it feels like a loss, right? Of course. I also dig the way the guitars are used in part as a percussive instrument on this version.

Issues think they’re going to tour North America this summer on a rescheduled jaunt with Dance Gavin Dance, Animals as Leaders and Veil of Maya, which was originally supposed to happen this spring (but, you know). That run will surely also be canceled, unfortunately, but I look forward to catching them live again some time in 2021.