Local Review: CornerCut — Similarities

CornerCut
Similarities
Self-Released
Street: 07.20.2025
CornerCut = Pet Fox + Pedro the Lion

Similarities, the debut EP from local band CornerCut, is a project that leans into uncertainty, rather than resolving it. Today, CornerCut operates as a four-piece — Deacon Leasure, Jaden Sisneros, Matthew Silva and Dylan Berg — but this initial release was a solo project by Leasure, with additional production from River Feulling. 

The opener track, “Stop/Start,” sets the tone for the record immediately. It opens with an instrumental that piques your curiosity and beckons you to come nearer, almost as if you’re hearing your next-door neighbor playing music through the walls. When the soft, somewhat obscured vocals appear, they invite you to listen in even closer. Rather, they invite you to turn the volume up and lose yourself completely in the track. The song lives up to its name: there’s a moment when you think the song is approaching its end, only for it to build up and start all over again, playing with a dynamic of tension and release that acts as a through line for the whole project.

That tension carries through to the second track, “Mess With Emotion,” functioning as the emotional core of the project. The song meanders between themes of confrontation and confession, with lyrics that are at times hard to decipher but incredibly poignant when they do come into focus. Ideas of emotional manipulation and self-awareness are brought up, culminating in an impactful lyrical shift from “you’re not my world” to “I’m not your world” midway through the song. 

Despite its name, the third track, “Ugly Duet,” is arguably the project’s most beautiful  song. It’s lighter and melodic — a much-needed uplift after the heavy energy built up in the first two tracks. Where the other songs on the record are laden with grungy instruments and static vocals, this song feels like a breath of fresh air, although it does not pivot away from the heavy lyrical themes seen throughout the EP.

“What I Want” carries us into the latter part of the project with an attitude of self-assurance. Throughout the song, Leasure repeats the phrase, “What I want is what I need / if not now, in time you’ll see.” That declaration of confidence stands out amid the EP’s hazy, emotionally uncertain landscape. 

The closing track “Blue” brings us back to the atmosphere created in the opening of the EP, evoking that distant, through-the-walls sound once again. It’s the longest and most instrumentally expansive song in the project, with an energy that almost makes the song feel like it’s coming in and out of focus — mirroring the tension and release woven throughout the first track.

Overall, Similarities is an EP that is difficult to pin down in the most satisfying way. You don’t necessarily understand what’s being said at every moment, but you understand how it feels. And for many music lovers, that’s what matters most. —Maren Smith

Read more reviews of local music:
Local Review: The Gully Bandits — Space EP
Local Music Singles Roundup: May 2026