review by Abigail June

The Great Divider is a powder keg of a debut EP, capturing this generation’s political frustrations in a project primed to explode into the alternative music scene.

At just over eight minutes, SusAF ran the risk of their debut EP getting lost in the sea of new releases. Instead, the two time Grammy award winning artist was able to tell a complete story in only three songs, garnering media attention and leaving listeners hungry for more. Under his nom de guerre, SusAF steps away from the fame of his multiplatinum career as a founding member of a 90’s rock group to release a trio of songs that capture pieces of modern day political unease. 

The origin of his alias? SusAF says it’s “because I’m suspect as fuck of what is happening right now. That’s it.” An answer that reflects the blunt, unfiltered quality of his songwriting.

Alternate Reality opens the EP with both the sonic and lyrical resonance of a classic punk protest song, with unique insight into the way our own personal social media feeds influence our beliefs. With its quick tempo, heavy drumbeat, and increasingly intense vocals, Alternate Reality is a 74 second long warning against ignorance in an age where the prevalence of artificial intelligence and personalized algorithms trap all of us in increasingly small feedback loops. 

In The Great Divider, SusAF strips back to folk instrumentals that compliment his lullabic vocals. The simple background track and clarity of his voice work together to highlight his lyrical call to action– to “stop following the great divider”. As SusAF said in an interview, “We are living with a leader that is purposely dividing us every chance he gets”. In this track, SusAF puts the blame of America’s political turmoil not on the individual, but on the political leaders sewing seeds of dissent amongst their people. 

The closing track, Molotov Rose, takes the political rage and unease of the first two songs and offers listeners a radical alternative to despair: hope. Inspired by Banksy’s Love is in the Air (also called The Flower Thrower) SusAF encourages you to send “anything to be a part of the solution, anything that says lay your weapons down”. Where other politically aware artists express frustrations, not many will encourage you to hope for peace. 

As a whole, the three songs work together to express three different facets of living in the modern world in simple, effective tunes. What really sets SusAF apart is not his political commentary or his songwriting prowess, but his insistence that even amongst all the horrors, there is still room for hope.