Guest In The Car – ‘This Is How’ – 24/09/2025

Frontman Robert Vel described Guest In The Car’s latest single, ‘This Is How’, as ‘something more open, but no less intense’. While that may just be a rephrasing of the cliché ‘less is more’, it is hard to argue with the song’s potency. The Radiohead influences can still be heard, but the band partially shucks them for a more original, accessible yet still vulnerable sound. 

In fact, vulnerability seems to be the key to this song’s meaning. Dollops of poignancy are given to the idea of communication, that opening one’s mind to another, particularly in musical form, is imperative, and why ‘feeling drowned out/ every time I open my mouth’ elicits such a devastating reaction.

Calm and assertive, the track is an exemplar in control. The drums don’t kick in until after the two-minute mark, and the other three bandmembers’ instruments plant a melancholic pedestal on which Vel’s voice can shine. Since their debut, ‘Music For The Kids’, with its muddy, atmospheric Win Butler-esque vocals and My Bloody Valentine instrumental fuzz, Guest In The Car have evolved their sound with subtlety but certainty. It’s particularly exciting to hear how crisp and powerful the lead vocal is, how confident and assured the guitars are, building up to a piano solo before erupting into the final stirring chorus. Emotion has never been a problem for Guest In The Car, but they are getting better at harnessing and delivering this gift with each new release.

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