SINGLE REVIEW: SKOFF – I AM BROKE
‘I AM BROKE’ isn’t just a cry for help — it’s an eruption. From the punchy, urgent snap of the intro to the seething vocal delivery that follows, SKOFF waste no time establishing their intent. The track lurches with low-slung menace at first, vocals oozing with sinister restraint before bursting into searing snarls that pull no punches. It’s a volatile, unfiltered outpouring of emotion — bitter, broken, furious — and constantly shifting in tone like someone teetering between silent despair and white-hot rage.
There’s an almost cinematic brutality to how the arrangement mutates — one minute cloaked in the droning fuzz of grunge, the next stripped bare with the barrenness of post-rock, then revving into something more hardcore, more fired-up, more alive. Elements of DIY indie roughness and a firestorm of metal bite round it all out, but nothing ever feels forced. The transitions are jagged but meaningful, like mood swings mapped to melody. Every shift in pace and texture adds another beat to the story — a soundscape built not to soothe, but to scream back at the world.
Where many songs about burnout and poverty wallow, ‘I AM BROKE’ fights. It flails. It fumes. SKOFF harness the desperation and weariness of being kicked down repeatedly — financially, emotionally, generationally — and turn it into something that thrashes back. It's not polished or pretentious. It’s gritty, real, and brutally expressive. The production is stripped but smart, keeping the chaos grounded in intent. When the anger peaks, you feel it in your teeth. When it recedes, there’s a cold, heavy stillness — the kind that says this isn’t over.
For anyone sick of pretending they’re fine when they’re not, this is the anthem. For anyone screaming in silence, SKOFF just gave that scream a voice.
