Purple Patch is a Pune rock band that’s put out a little material and showed some potential along the way. They’ve put out a few singles and an EP over the last couple of years and shown some growth with every new release. Their new song ‘Masks’ is a bit intriguing, because if their intention was to make a nostalgic song with the sort of impact a 90s kid would have found earth-shattering in their teenage years, they have hit it right on the head.

The song (Shraddha Mhasawade and Saisha Singh are credited as features) gets in this space from the word go. The first guitar line and the general tone once the drums, bass and vocals kick in are exactly what used to happen when a hard rock band would get around to writing a ballad. Remember the days when Staind, Three Days Grace and the like would dominate your 512 MB MP3 player? It’s a credit to the track that it instantly takes you right back to that time. The song itself isn’t too elaborate or over-wrought, and thank god it isn’t because that would have pushed it over the edge into unbearable territory. There’s a solo that if straight of a 2003 music video and a piano line that is also pretty much in that vein. Taken on its own, one could say that the song is kept simple and to the point with no real frills and the band focusing on what is natural to them (and doing all that stuff well), but its context is just so overbearing that it’s almost impossible for you to ignore all the memories of that time in your life while getting through the song’s 4 minutes.

There is a derivative feel to ‘Masks’, of course; one of the big reasons the song reminds you so much of the mid-2000s is that it sounds pretty much like that time. It is fine to not be overly forward-thinking or far out, however, if an artist is ready to commit to a sound and do exactly what they want, opinions and changing times be damned. Sometimes it fails, but here, Purple Patch does accomplish what they set out to do, which is to be nostalgic and evoke those feelings. And it’s a good thing, because that was a great time for most.