"If You're Here, You Must Be Fine" by Customer Service (Review)

HAPPY FRIDAY, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I am so beyond excited to be starting the year off with a returning artist; today we’ll be reviewing the newest EP from Customer Service, “If You’re Here, You Must Be Fine”.  For those of you who may not know, Customer Service is an emo band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and you can read our previous review of “To You, After 2000 Years” HERE! This EP came out on October 31st, 2024, only a few months after their previous release in June of 2024.  The quick turnaround time might be concerning to some people, but I think it just goes to show how much these dudes are absolutely giving it their all and are nonstop grinding to get their music heard.  This EP builds upon everything that Customer Service has done so far.  No, there’s no radical changes or extreme experimentation on this EP, if you want new Customer Service music, this is definitely Customer Service, however, it is so beautiful to see how they are so consistently growing, perfecting their craft, and still staying true to the sound they have created for themselves.  Let me not waste anymore time yapping and jump right into it.  

Never Meant To:

This EP opens with a piercing screech and electronic squeal of the guitar matched with the booming of the drums.  After the brief intro, we switch to a clean guitar tone, possibly even an acoustic guitar, as the vocals kick in for the verse.  

“Old friends getting older

Seasons change, it’s all the same

But everything’s a little colder

I could go looking for a change of scene

Where I can walk a block and not get lost in thoughts you used to share with me”

Customer Service has not changed too much since the last time we heard them, they’re still pining over past relationships, whether it’s platonic or romantic, and watching seasons change from warm to cold.  As always, Customer Service is able to paint a true picture and vibe through their discography.  This isn’t a perfectly accurate description, but it’s almost as if “Live More Forever” is Summer, “to you, after 2000 years” is Winter, and this EP, “If You’re Here, You Must Be Fine” is Autumn.  Of course, this is just how I envision the settings of these songs, and they are in no way constrained or restricted in these seasonal differences per EP.  The songs definitely stand on their own, whenever you want to listen to them; but mixed with some of the lyricism and even cover artwork, it is able to give me vague flashbacks to times in my life where the seasons were very prevalent.  The first verse leads directly into the chorus with, “I’m holding on for one more day.  Scared you’ll hate me when you see the ways I’ve changed.  I’m holding on for one more day”  The narrator is trying to cling onto any semblance of who they once were, or what they once had, but is still riddled with the fear and inevitability of change.  Not only that, but also nervous to find out truly how much they have changed, and if they are even recognizable anymore.  

“I kept the pictures that you took

Glued a few to tear-stained letters you wrote and hid them in your favorite book

You told me to move on while your hands ran through my hair

I said, ‘You’re smart, so you’re probably right, but I’m way too much of an idiot to care’ “

This verse is probably my favorite of the song; the detailed atmosphere of old pictures and letters, torn and messy, shoved into random pages of a well-read book, as well as the comedic self-deprecation of the final line.  The idea of being so blissfully ignorant about your own situation, while someone is actively trying to emotionally pull away from you while doing comforting acts to soften the blow, all to just be undermined by your own contentment within that moment.  There is no reminiscing of the past, there is no worries about the future, just the current moment with hands in your hair and the feeling of a physical being attached.  

“Take your time, it’s all the same

Take your heart wherever I go

(It’s all the same)

Understand this, now, as all I’ve known

(It’s all the same)

Take your heart wherever I go

(It’s all the same)

Understand this, now, as all I’ve known

(It’s all the same)”

The bridge of the song starts off clean and slow, bringing in some very well-executed competing vocals.  The background vocals really give it their all with raw screaming; not too loud in the mix but gives a perfect amount of atmosphere with so many different voices going at once.  This was a fantastic opening track for the EP. 

The Sun Looks Awesome! (You Should Look Directly At It):

The second track is a quick and easy listen, being only about two minutes long.  The guitar tone is twinkly but subtle; for the bulk of the song, it stays in its lane and lets the vocals speak for itself.  

“Fall out of my chair

My eyes glued to the paint-chipped ceiling

I was hoping you’d care enough

To ask me how I’m feeling

Laying there, I’d ask you if my head was bleeding

You said, ‘I like your hair, but the ceiling is leaking’ “

The first stanza displays the narrator’s overall distraction, falling out of their chair and honing in on the flaws of the ceiling instead of doing anything to effectively prevent themselves from harm.  After a physical blow to the head, there is an emotionally taxing realization that the other person in the room is not interested or concerned over the narrator’s injury.  The first stanza gives a lot of examples as to how these characters’ priorities are skewed; instead of being worried about the narrator’s potentially bleeding head, they are focused on a much more vain aspect, their hair.  However, there is also something to be said about both characters staring at the same thing, but for different reasons; the singer is focusing on the paint chips, and the other person is noticing the leak.  It’s as if the walls around these two are literally and metaphorically cracking and crumbling around them.  

“I could stare directly into sunlight

Endure the pain of losing my sight

If I could get out of bed and go outside

There’s easier ways to dry my eyes”

The chorus furthers the idea that the singer is specifically looking at things that cause them pain.  They are looking at the sun as well as finding any evidence of something that will make them feel bad, looking for the worst reality, like they have blinded themself from any logical truth.  There is also a little bit of “too much of a good thing” vibe because the narrator is struggling to actually get out of bed and feel the sun, but to counteract this depression they are fantasizing about taking it to the extreme.  Not only do they want to go out in the sun and hope the warmth helps, but they’re going to actively harm themself in the process.  I like how the chorus ends with “there’s easier ways to dry my eyes”, the narrator is going to every extreme to feel better, while simultaneously going about it in the worst ways.  

“If only I could leave this house

My shoes are tied but I just pace around the couch

If only I had shut my mouth

I’d rather die than know it’s over now”

We continue this trend of feeling locked-in and isolated, taking small steps towards leaving the house and confronting the outside world.  Shoes are tied and ready to go, but the only thing they can do is pace around endlessly.  They are so in their head about things they’ve said and done, and also coping with what sounds like a serious breakup.  This someone was probably a rock for them, helping them come out of their shell and giving human connection and socialization, but now that they’re gone, it is absolutely crippling to do anything at all.  After this verse, the chorus repeats a couple of times before slowing down slightly into a bit of an instrumental breakdown.  This one is just a simple, catchy song about staring at the sun.  You get exactly what you’d expect.

With Friends Like These…: 

The previous track flows right into this one, starting with some slightly distorted, yet twinkly, guitar strums.  The midway point of this EP is the shortest song, just under two minutes long, and it serves as a nice transition from and addition to the track prior.  

“I know you’d say I wasted all my time away

But I got the Blade of Woe

It’s not too much, but it’s something to talk about

Another day, the sun came up and went away

But I laid in bed and as it went I found I was thoroughly entertained”

The opening stanza follows up on “The Sun Looks Awesome! (You Should Look Directly At It)” with references to the sun and laying in bed; however, it seems as if the perspective has shifted slightly.  The sun comes and goes, and days pass by, but the narrator now seems more comfortable staying out of it.  There is definitely a high probability that I missed some pop-culture references in previous songs, but we finally get a reference from Customer Service that I live for.  The Blade of Woe is a unique dagger from the Elder Scrolls video game franchise, and I think it is so funny to picture a guy showing off his sword collection but it turns out to be just virtual swords from a video game.  

“You’re going out

I’m sleeping in

And wondering where the moment went

You’re going out

I’m sleeping in

And wondering where the moment went”

I have to admit, as a short song it definitely serves its purpose by being quick and catchy as hell.  The bridge comes in with a droning guitar strum, a nice bass line, and the clicking of the drums.  On the repeat, it builds and builds until everything stops to allow for the last few words to be yelled.  Ever since I first listened to this EP back in October, the vocal performance of “wondering where the moment went” has been perpetually stuck in my head.  It’s not the most groundbreaking lyrics or anything, but the execution of the instrumentals, the build up of the song, and the overall performance is incredibly effective and really just hits!

“Whoa

Try so hard

Eyes wide shut I’ll play my part

Whoa

Where’ve you been?

Eyes wide shut I’ll let you in

So what’re you trying to say about everything?

You take and you take

And you throw it all right back in my face”

In contrast to the anxiety and agoraphobia of “The Sun Looks Awesome!”, the narrator has since submitted to shutting in and, with “eyes wide shut”, deliberately ignoring any negative emotions and environments they are in.  The song ends with a group of different vocals all shouting, it seems the person it is directed towards is a user, a parasite even, and nothing the narrator does is ever good enough.  After everything they do, it is all thrown right back in their face, even though they’re just trying to play the part they think they should be playing.  

Picture This: 

Track four opens with a slightly fuzzy guitar riff, very pop punk style riff but with the technique of midwest-emo, if that makes any sense.  The guitar is built up by a drum roll and the lyrics “I hope you know your worth…” rise into the mix.  This song is all about trying to fit into a box created for you by a perfectionist.  There is clearly an uncomfortability and inherent disagreement about how these two individuals want to live their lives and how they want to be perceived by others.  I think there is also quite a bit of class consciousness involved in this song; there are feelings of being saved by someone or something that is in a more successful or fortunate position than the narrator, and how that ultimately takes a toll on their sense of self and leads to arguments and an identity crisis.  The chorus is pretty clear-cut with, “Well picture this, picture-perfect-you: your picturesque expectations are tearing us in two.”  The following verse has some interesting visuals (I’m probably taking it a step too far, but you’ll see what I’m talking about).

“Etch your pain into the back of your head

How could I hate you from the foot of your bed?

You have too much left to say

To pass me by and look the other way

But that’s okay

I’ll just lay here

Pretending things don’t change”

Something about me is I love finding evidence to support that songs are written from a dog’s perspective (I once read something about how “Constant Headache” by Joyce Manor is about a dog, and now I’ve never been able to ignore that); but whether we take that literally (we won’t) or not, using a dog as a metaphor still works aptly within this stanza.  “How could I hate you from the foot of your bed” makes me think of a dog that has had a hard life, but is now finally rewarded with sleeping on the bed.  Pairing this with the themes of perfectionism, it really paints a picture in my head of this antagonist being a vain Regina George or Cher Horowitz type person.  You know the type, trophy wife, trophy husband, trophy dog, trophy house, etcetera.  

“I wish I never revealed so much

The jokes on me; I’m out of touch

But if I come crawling back

We’ll try for something we never had

I know you weren’t raised that way

You spend your life how you spend your days”

The first lines of this stanza feel deeply relatable; I have definitely found myself in situations where I get comfortable too quick and start dropping personal lore that should’ve been saved for a time when our connection has become deeper, or even just in times where I say something and then immediately start cringing at myself afterwards.  This verse also has a tug-and-pull between regret and justification with walking away; the narrator is still slightly wrapped up with this idea of a perfect life and existence, a fantasy of wealth and status, but knowing they couldn’t handle it the first time.  They hope if they came running back, it would maybe work out differently this time.  After this, we get a very poetic spoken-word portion:

“Perfection in their arms and for a moment I believe that I could be a part of something greater than myself

The beating heart of a budding soul composed of fragments of you and I

Evoking images of our pasts both long-forgotten and sacrificed

Flashing before our very eyes

If, for nothing else, but to raise them within walls filled with the sound of your voice

But no sooner than it arrived

It is gone”

Performed with a soft, mumbled, and melancholy voice, this chunk of the song reflects on connections, be it love, creation, or building a life with someone, and then is followed by loss.  “A budding soul” suggests creating something new together, whether it be a literal child or something symbolic like a fictional future.  This connection brings up memories of old versions of themselves, past lives, or things they gave up to get here. Time feels compressed; the past and present collide in one intense moment.  The ending cuts sharply. The hope, the vision, the future all disappear almost as soon as it’s felt. What made it powerful is also what makes it painful: it was fleeting.  The track ends with repetition and booming gang vocals bouncing off of each other.  

Riley Workman 2: Working Harder:

The final track on this EP is a continuation of Customer Service’s song “Working Hard or Riley Workman?” off their EP “Live More Forever” from 2024.  This song opens with feedback that fades into the background and clean and subtle guitar picking.  Customer Service is often categorized as similar to the band Mom Jeans, but I have to say, this is one of their most Mom Jeans-esque songs, easily; I think of “Movember”, “Scott Pilgrim vs My GPA”, and “Now This is Podracing” as some examples of similar vibes.  The vocals start off soft and low-energy with the lyrics:

“I’ve been staring in the mirror for a long, long time

Over-analyzing everything and losing my mind

All the days that I wasted accepting a fate I don’t deserve

I’m late, but it’s not unheard of”

Followed up by some “woah-oh”s and the first build up and increase in energy of the song.  A lot of this song revolves around self-reflection and a bit of an identity crisis.  This stanza starts that trend immediately with the references to staring in the mirror and over-analyzing.  “A fate I don’t deserve” feels more along the lines of living too well, not self-pitying; it seems, with context of previous songs, that the narrator is still coping with their position and role in society and having quite a bit of impostor syndrome about it.  As the “woahs” come in, so do the drums, building into the chorus with much more energy.  

“Could you tell me what you think I am?

It’s alright if you can’t

I’ll just stare at the ceiling fan

For the rest of the day

Let my body decay

As my stomach eats itself and I waste away”

The chorus is pleading with anyone or anything to point them in the direction of self-identity.  If they can’t find any truth of self, they will fade and decay, losing their humanity. Almost that life isn’t worth living if you don’t know whose life you’re living.  Quickly, the energy drops back down to the clean guitar with only light accompaniment of the full band.  

“And yeah, I’d love to clean up your mess

In some weird, specific way which makes little-to-no sense

But maybe if I thought a little bit less

Then maybe I’d find a little more time to be a little less stressed”

The second verse takes a deeper dive into the narrator’s psyche and their current mental state.  There is clearly something wrong in their life, and this stanza could be interpreted as them speaking to their own mind, or the brain speaking to them.  They’d love to pick up the pieces of the disaster they’ve created, but any of their potential solutions seem overcomplicated and unhelpful.  But maybe, if they hadn’t spent so much time overthinking and hyper analyzing everything, they wouldn’t need to be digging themselves out of this hole.  It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy where the brain has manifested their biggest insecurities into a fictional reality they are now trapped in, and when it’s time to figure a way out, the mind is already too exhausted from beating itself up, and can’t offer any rational or thoughtful solutions.  As the lyrics of this stanza go on, the vocal performance gets louder and adds more energy with each breath.  For the chorus, it is now overlapping with the gang vocals of “woah”s.  As everything wraps up, the feedback kicks back in with a ringing out guitar strum and a broadcast sample begins to speak.

“Number 23, Riley Workman - he’s the one to watch! Workman - down the line! They think it’s all over - it is now! Dalhousie Tigers win the ASU Cup for the first time in 25 years!”

I had to mention this because I am an absolute sucker for any kind of audio snippets used in songs; just like how Customer Service used “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” from The Godfather: Part III in the original Riley Workman song.  However, I tried looking online and I have absolutely no idea where this sample is referencing.  I couldn’t find anything about it whatsoever.  First off, I’m not a huge sports guy (Go Birds), and Customer Service is a Canadian band and I am from the United States, so I even tried researching with the knowledge that this is most likely foreign to me.  But alas, I couldn’t find anything about it.  If anyone knows what this is in reference to, I would love to know!  Please tell me, Customer Service!  After this sample, the song peaks at its energy with everything going full blast, and after a moment the feedback fades out and the EP has ended.  

Once again, Customer Service has released another kickass bundle of songs.  “If You’re Here, You Must Be Fine” continues to take Customer Service on an upward trajectory and I am super stoked to hear what else they come out with in 2026.  If you’d like to hear more from Customer Service, you can check out all their links right HERE! 

(https://linktr.ee/customerserviceisaband )

*I don’t want to take away from any attention on Customer Service at the end of this review, so I’ll keep this brief:

Happy New Year to all of you!  Thank you so much for being here, reading, listening, and continuing to support all these bands as well as myself and the work I try to do here.  I am very excited for all the new bands that we will discover together in 2026!