I find I typically have something halfway interesting to say about almost all of the couple hundred albums I listen to every year. There are so many bands making so many good albums every year that instead of making futile attempt at creating a "best of" list, I’m just gonna talk a little bit about every damn album I like. I'll be using the never tried and absolute untrue Chaotic Neutral sorting method of "the order I actually listened to them". Hooray?
PLEASE SUPPORT MUSICIANS. Every album I can find on Bandcamp will include a Bandcamp embed you can click through to buy the album from the band or label. Please buy music or merch or go to shows and sing along! Without our support, these wonderful musicians can't continue to exist, y'all. Your dozen or two plays on Spotify unfortunately don't mean shit when ends need to meet.
(I know we don't all have the means to do it, so if you like something here and can't afford it, message me and I'll buy it for you! Seriously!)
I have a half dozen bands in the "for fans of" section for these folks which is a pretty good indicator that I really like an album! To boil it down: In spite of being on the opposite side of the country, they feel like a perfect-fit La Escalera Records band. While they're certainly a pop punk band that thrives on soaring harmonies and hooky choruses, there's always a little dirt over the top of everything that reminds me a lot of LE alums Squarecrow and Problem Daughter. Then they go and throw in a little pinch of a MCR or P!ATD flair in there to really top it all off. All the more impressive is that the entire EP is self-recorded and self-produced! I really love this album, and given it's part of a planned trilogy (the ACR Cinematic Universe has started strong) you can rest assured I'm eagerly looking forward to the next one (hopefully soon given they're about to start recording it)!
This is the first of many A-F Records bands that's gonna show up if I actually get through all these reviews. Being a good southeastern band, you'll immediately hear influences like Loved Ones, Hot Water Music, Avail, Against Me!, and Red City Radio throughout all of these songs. The thing I love the absolute most is that many of the choruses here are designed to get you singing your heart out ("We can hold on 'til Januaaaaryyyyyy", "Just say it like it’s easy to do!", "Maybe your fire was just too hot to hooooooold"). It's one of those records that you clear your queue for and stick on repeat once it comes around because you just want to sit back and sing along forever.
I don't always listen to heavy music but when I do, it's because of Riley Breckenridge's Hermitology blog. Anyway, Ithaca rules. End review. They’re like a supersonic version of the early 00’s metalcore boom that you probably heard on most Trustkill releases. They remind me a lot of bands like The Bled or Converge or what have you, those heavy, sludgy bands that just pummel you relentlessly and never let up. I don’t have a lot more insight since metal isn't particularly in my wheelhouse but this album "slays" as the kids would say. Or wait, am I supposed to say it "slaps" now? I don’t know. I’m old.
This record bops. Much like the title implies, it's a very uplifting album that feels like it'd slot in perfectly with any summer rotation, and I think that's exactly what Bob was going for here. Even when he decides to slow it down a bit, instead of feeling like a sad winter jam, it feels like a nice summer night drive. It's like if early R.E.M. came out of the gates as a straight-up punk band (which is an absolute dream for me as a kid who grew up on 90's alt-rock). My favorite songs, naturally, are the undeniable bangers on the album ("Thirty Dozen Roses", "I Fought", "Send Me a Postcard"). Bob delivers every line with so much passion and energy for an old dude it almost makes me wonder if my own musical career still has a chance to take off (lol nope). An absolute joy of an album.
You may remember Scott as the frontman of the prolific early-2000's pop-punk band Rufio. If you enjoyed Rufio, you’ll enjoy everything Scott puts out: fast-paced melodic pop punk with vocal harmonies out the wazoo and inarguably the best technical guitar work in the genre. This was the FOURTHdamnalbum Scott released over the course of about 13 months and is arguably the best one. <jackie-chan-WTF.jpg> (Don’t worry, he dropped the fifth a few weeks ago, too.) Seriously consider supporting this dude. He writes and plays and records and mixes and masters everything himself. It’s absolutely unbelievable the amount of creative energy he has and we’re seriously hashtag-blessed to have a dude like him sharing it all with us.
It's Millencolin. What more do you need to know, really? These dudes are the masters of that kinda heavy melodic punk and this album is another step in their storied history. These guys can take a dumb week-long meme like "Yanny or Laurel?" and turn it into a poignant sociopolitical song about trying to put yourself in another person's shoes instead of persecuting them for no reason. If you enjoy anything they've released since Pennybridge Pioneers, there's no reason to stop listening now.
The band name might be bit of a mouthful but don't let it deter you from the fact that these folks from Athens, Greece absolutely shred. Imagine if Panic! at the Disco was a technical melodic skate punk band and you’ll get a little bit of an idea of what Qualia's all about: excellent musicianship, fast riffs, heavy breakdowns, powerful melodic vocals, and a nigh-infinite well of showmanship. All of these songs are like little mini symphonies. It's a little hard at times to believe a band like this can even exist. They're fantastic. You should also consider giving this one a listen if you were a fan of the late, great Gatsbys American Dream (or their short-lived successor, Money Pit) who were also big fans of eschewing traditional song structures.
Another great find by Wiretap Records, Burnt Tapes comes from across the pond and plays mid-tempo melodic punk with a lil post-hardcore twinge that feels like it'd be a solid fit on Red Scare. Self-described as "regret punk" you'll find the lyrics really hit home if you've hit the home stretch of your late-20s or in some of our cases, late-30s. "Hip hip hooray to all our misery!" indeed. If you're a fan of Elway, MakeWar or perhaps (for a really deep cut) the old Canadian post-hardcore band Choke, you'll definitely find something to enjoy on this record. Much like what happens when I listen to Elway, I feel like they're a band I don't consciously search out but when the album starts spinning up I wonder why the hell I'm not listening to it far more.
I am prone to hyperbole, but I will try to say this with the utmost sincerity: - is a perfect album. - is an example of an album that is exactly everything it should be: no filler, no song overstays its welcome, and Kelc's poignant lyrics and heartfelt vocal performance serve as a haunting connective tissue that pulls all of these songs together into a solid cohesiveness. At times it's devastating enough from its brutal honesty about deeply personal topics that you almost have to stop whatever else you might be doing to just sit back and connect with the songs. I can leave on repeat for hours and not even realize it.
The band name might be silly but the music is anything but! These folks from Italy play my absolute favorite genre of music: early 2000’s post-hardcore a la Claire De Lune, Silent Drive, or Choke. This EP is full of beautiful vocal harmonies, brooding guitarwork, layered choruses, well-timed shouts (I always gotta pull out my fist pumps for "WHEN DID THE MORNING COME!"), and of course, a Never Ending Story reference or two. I was really glad they were invited to FEST this year so I could see them live!
Thanks first go to my buddy Tim H for introducing me to these folks years ago. They play a very airy, atmospheric post-punk similar to Terrible Feelings and they do it really damn well. There’s a beautiful, haunting quality to the album as a whole. The title translates to "Light and Shadow" and Джуна evokes both of those extremes throughout the EP, bouncing between darkly quiet solo pieces that eventually crescendo into pulsing waves of bright crashing guitars.
This EP came out in 2017 but was recently released on vinyl (bundled with their previous EP) and boy am I glad I found out about it. Poison Alley plays melodic skate punk that is very similar to one of my all-time favorites, Atlas Losing Grip (a band that unfortunately broke up a few years ago right as they were about to really break out). I'm hoping Poison Alley can stick around awhile longer and continue pumping out this energetic, politically-conscious melodic punk that I love so much. Andras' vocal delivery is easily on par with Rodrigo Alfaro's work in Atlas Losing Grip or fellow Hungarian Zoli Teglas from Ignite, who I'm sure we can all agree has been one of the best singers in punk for a couple decades now. I've made a joke before about how with skate punk bands, you have to wait to hear if the singer is the absolute best or the absolute worst 'cause there's no in-between in the genre, and Poison Alley has managed to find one of the absolute best. The vocals and lyrics are phenomenal and serve as the driving force on this album. There are few lyrics that can resonate with me as strongly as these:
Growing up on the chords that we adore Never felt solitude in the dark Never heard how loudly fractured my heart
Growing up on the chords that we adore They're still the solace and relief after all err Those chords will be my last love as the first was so
It's only a couple of songs, one of which is I guess their new theme song or something, but more AmSteel is always good AmSteel, especially when it's been a billion years or whatever! Hoping this will lead to a full length or EP at some point.
