Review: Charli XCX – Crash

Adam Grundy May 2, 2022

Every now and then you come across an album that just compels you to write about it. The current pop music scene is filled with new artists (Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa), established artists branching out from their main project (Hayley Williams), and the household names (Adele, Lady Gaga). Charli XCX was one of those artist I heard name-dropped a few times along the way of navigating through the wave of pop artists that were out there, but I discovered Crash by Charli XCX pretty late in the game (nearly a month after the initial release date) and I was immediately drawn into the world that this artist brings forth on the dynamic, smash of a record. Armed with a plethora of A-list producers, including The 1975’s George Daniel (among many others), Charli XCX could’ve gone in a number of directions on her fifth studio album. Much like how Dua Lipa set the world on fire the last two years with Future Nostalgia, Crash has that feeling of being the “it” pop record that could garner the same amount of momentum on radio and word of mouth.

Adam Grundy Apr 28, 2022

Coming off of the release of last year’s Looking For A Light, Tombstones In Their Eyes are back with a well-equipped approach to their music by adding lush vocal harmonies into a crowd pleasing set of tunes. Guitarist and vocalist John Treanor said this about the band’s evolution, “The band is evolving, which is cool. I’ve never been in a band that stuck around long enough and released enough material to really see the change occur. There’s such a wide range of songs and sounds now, it’s really hard to pigeonhole what we are: Psych Rock? Maybe. Shoegaze? Not so much at this point. Indie Rock? Maybe. Rock and Roll? Yes. It all depends on which song you’re playing, really, but all the songs fit into the Tombstones In Their Eyes genre and sound, no matter how disparate their sound.” With limitless possibilities for their songwriting, this band appears to be hitting the right groove in their musical journey.

Adam Grundy Apr 27, 2022

Sometimes you just know when an artist has that “it” factor to them that will open multiple doors to the possibilities of their career. Rozzi definitely falls into this category with her Berry EP, a thrilling collection of songs that uniquely showcases her impressive vocal range and songwriting prowess. Led by the super-charged single featuring Nile Rodgers, “Consequences” is one of those songs that grabs your attention from the first few notes and never lets up. With a great-sounding EP, it’s only a matter of time before others become aware of this artist’s brilliance.

Jason Tate Apr 20, 2022

Years ago, and barely out of my teens, I scribbled music mends broken hearts in the margins of a notebook. I was trying to put to words how finding music, and getting lost in the perfect song, could save your life. It was melodramatic. It was true.

Over the past two years, while locked down in a global pandemic, we as a society have experienced previously unimaginable trauma. Mass death. Isolation and fear. Uncertainty and rage. And as we begin to navigate what life looks like next, I’m reminded of those four little words I once scratched across a piece of lined paper. Now, I’m not arrogant enough to think I have a universal answer, but I know for me, in my moments of despair, I reconnected with music and it pulled me out. Last year, discovering Turnstile flipped a fuse in my brain that showed me how to love music again. It unlocked something within me and reminded me what it was like to feel the joy of finding a new favorite band. And this year, it’s discovering an album that feels like it could have only been made after what we all just went through. An album that not only helps define the state of the world but the ethos of a generation. The album is Goodbye to Misery; the band is Cold Years.

I’ve always used music as a metric of remembrance, with periods in my life defined by the albums I was listening to. But it goes further than that. At the core, music is what we have long used to tell our stories. To pass down the legacy, the learnings, the trials, and the current mindset from one generation to another. You can listen to music and hear the pain, hear the joy, hear the triumphs, and feel the defeats. It’s a way to mark our personal lives and build milestones of collective memory. And Goodbye to Misery is an album that could only have been birthed from the well of COVID. An album that paints the state of the world with an American Idiot like clarity and mirrors a generational attitude back through the speakers. And it’s done with a maturity and grace far beyond expectations for a band on just their sophomore release.

Adam Grundy Apr 18, 2022

For those unfamiliar with the electronic artist known as Animalweapon, it comes from the mind of Patrick Cortes. On this sprawling, eight-song album called Set of Constraints, the artist tackles heavy lyrical themes like struggles with mental health, anxiety, as well as making personal connections to the material to ensure the balance is just right. Cortes shared this about the new record: “A lot of this record is a marker of a transitional period of my life. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my last record Tyrannosaurus was very much a representation of a pretty low stretch, mental health wise. A lot of this album was me acknowledging that I can mitigate that if I actually put in the work, and starting to. I still write music with enough room for interpretation so that people can connect it to whatever they’re feeling, but ideally I hope it resonates with anyone who is working on themselves or ‘in the cocoon’ so to speak.” Set Of Constraints seems like an odd title, as Animalweapon’s musical journey appears to be limitless.

Adam Grundy Apr 15, 2022

In the crowded scene of pop-punk bands during the early 00’s, I admittedly didn’t give Midtown as much of a hard look as I should have in retrospect. I would usually enjoy the singles that the band put on the Warped Tour compilation that came out each year, or stumble across a friend’s MP3 of punk songs on their computer that caught my ear, but I didn’t get on this band’s bandwagon until much later. After seeing Living Well Is The Best Revenge at a record store for a criminally low price, I took a chance on the album that I’ve grown to love even more so today. This album was crafted under the direction of producer Mark Trombino (Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World), and he helped Midtown hone in on the best parts of their sound to create a record that should’ve received more love and media attention. In an interview with Jason during the AbsolutePunk days, Midtown went into detail about their disdain for Drive-Thru Records, and potentially may have stunted some of the label’s desire to push the album into more commercial outlets. Controversy aside, Midtown’s Living Well Is the Best Revenge should be considered one of the better pop-punk albums to come out of this period of time.

Adam Grundy Apr 14, 2022

The latest taste of new music from the DC-based pop-punk band Dear Spring is called ”Every Now and Then,” and is filled with great harmonies, back and forth vocals, and a beating heart of purpose in every lyric. The song was produced by Nik Bruzzese, mixed by Ben Green, and mastered by Paul Leavitt. Dear Spring would be perfect for fans of Four Year Strong, Taking Back Sunday, and Hit the Lights, since this band is very much entrenched in that crisp pop-punk sound that many of us have grown to love over the years.

Adam Grundy Apr 5, 2022

Written largely during the start of the pandemic, The Injured List have returned with their fourth full-length record called Blue 32. The record title is a reference to the quarterback’s signals called out before the snap, and the band’s affinity for writing sad songs packed with plenty of purpose. The album was written mostly by lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Nathan Marks and drummer Ashton Parsons, while the band also had some additional friends contribute guitar parts remotely. The Injured List took a unique approach to this album by book-ending the record with the intro/outro tracks of “Adrift” and “Ashore” that help solidify their artistic statement found on Blue 32.

The record opens with the aforementioned intro track called “Adrift” that prepares the listener for the beauty found in my personal favorite in the set, called “Doubt.” That particular song opens with some well-placed synths that eventually break away for heavier-toned guitars and singer Nathan Marks’ anthemic vocals. “Doubt” reminds me a lot of Autopilot Off, with a little bit of The Maine and Mae thrown into the mix for good measure. Things continue to stay great on “Recover,” as drummer Ashton Parsons sets a great beat to allow the band to explore the possibilities of their sound.

Adam Grundy Apr 4, 2022

Debut albums always carry that weighty hope of grabbing the audience’s attention from the very first note. Sandman Sleeps have stormed onto the music scene with Crisis Actor, an album that the band admits that they strove for painful perfection in its recording process. “We’ve recorded this damn album, like, three times now,” confesses bassist, Alex Peck. In addition to Alex, the band is comprised of vocalist Cristina Peck, drummer Karsten Andersen, guitarist Zack Jones, and Sandman Sleeps’ musical chemistry only further adds to the allure found on their debut. Led by the immediately gripping single called, “Portrait of Jennie,” Sandman Sleeps reminds me of Florence and the Machine, early-Cranberries, and with a modern songwriting twist similar to Middle Kids. The band’s attention to detail pays off widely, as Crisis Actor is a thrilling record from start to finish.

Adam Grundy Mar 29, 2022

The latest offering of music from Telltale is a solid mix of impactful, hard-hitting songs that still have plenty of substance about them to make you continue to think about the lyrical material. The band tackles themes like mental health, self-doubt, and other more global issues like the climate crisis to round out this EP. Telltale shared this about the new record, “This record is our viewpoint on being a part of the apocalyptic generation. We obsess over zombie films, live in fear of the daily news, and constantly foresee the end of the world. Or rather, the world as we know it. A generation written off as lazy and self-centered, we’re taught to think that something broken can’t be fixed from within.” With interesting guitar parts and uplifting vocals, this band would perfect for fans of bands like Sleeping With Sirens, Hawthorne Heights, and Set It Off.

Adam Grundy Mar 28, 2022

The latest offering from Philadelphia’s own Riverby finds the artist on solid footing and tinkering with an aggressive rock sound to pair with their abrasive lyrics. Riverby entered the studio with veteran hit-maker Jim Wirt (Jack’s Mannequin) to craft the album that would become known as Absolution. The band shared this about the concept behind the material, “It’s about ending fear with mortality and finally coming to solutions with your shit, closing the door on things that have been festering: your history and yourself, and making peace with God. I don’t even believe in God, but on the off chance He’s fucking real, I’d like us to be cool.” The band is able to capitalize on their hard-nosed material with one of this year’s most immediately gripping records to date.

Adam Grundy Mar 25, 2022

It’s pretty amazing to think of just how much the music scene has changed in a short 20 years time. During the “emo boom” of the early 00’s, it seemed like every major label was falling over themselves in order to sign the next big thing in music and cash in on the interest in the punk/emo scene. There seemed to be a bigger buzz online in several key music website communities that you could sort of feel, or at least get a basic pulse, of when that next band was poised to make a big splash on the music landscape. As much as has been written about the tumultuous relationship Victory Records had with their bands and their contracts, I figured I’d focus the majority of this retrospective on the beauty of the music that Taking Back Sunday has left us with. Tell All Your Friends was one of those electric records that was destined to be huge, immediate, and make the listener feel like they were a part of something that belonged to them. I remember hearing of Taking Back Sunday for the first time in college when a friend of mine had just “discovered” a new band that he described as a mix between hardcore, punk, and anthemic pop that he thought I’d be into. What I wasn’t expecting was for this band to open up a gateway of possibilities of where my music tastes would gravitate towards for the foreseeable future.

Adam Grundy Mar 22, 2022

The latest offering from the pop rock band called Stress Dolls, the solo moniker of Chelsea O’Donnell, is a solid slab of guitar-driven rock with a steady heartbeat towards self-discovery. The EP, entitled Forward, was co-produced by O’Donnell and Marc Hunt, and features an eclectic mix of heartfelt songs. The record opens with “Alone,” a track about the complexities of relationships and when you just need a moment to breathe from the weight of the world. Chelsea sings, “Whenever I’m alone I get this feeling, it’s happening once again / I’m at half a glass without you, drowning in a whirlpool on the shallow end / But whenever you’re around I am a fever, a hot flush in your face / The vermin in your garden, overgrown yet trying to pick up the pace / So I’d rather be alone,” and her lower vocal delivery offers an interesting take on the pop rock genre. The opener features some well-placed synths in the background and adds to the overall texture of the song.

Adam Grundy Mar 21, 2022

Just when you think the days of surprise album releases are over, Oso Oso comes through in the clutch to deliver to their fourth studio album called Sore Thumb. This collection of 13 cohesive songs flows brilliantly from start to finish, and features a variety of tempos, feelings, and emotions throughout the record. The band is just coming off of their most successful (both commercially and critically) album to date in 2019’s Basking in the Glow, and had a lot of positive momentum going in their favor leading up to this album cycle. However Jade Lilitri, the only permanent member of the band, experienced a heartbreaking loss around this time last year when his touring guitarist Tavish Maloney passed away tragically at the age of 24. Lilitri does his best to honor his late contributor with one of this year’s best emo records, and one of this year’s best artistic statements to date.

Adam Grundy Mar 15, 2022

The latest single from punk rockers, Proxy, is a great blast of crunchy guitar-driven punk rock in the same vein as Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals and the heavier elements of New Found Glory. Proxy is the solo moniker of multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ryan Stolinski, and he’s onto something pretty cool on “Don’t Let Me Die In New Jersey,” a song taken from his self-titled EP. Stolinski shared this about the new single, “‘Don’t Let Me Die In New Jersey’ is about the longing feeling of wanting to grow past where you have been your entire life. Feeling bored of the old and needing new experiences. I wrote it from the perspective of someone who wants to die somewhere more beautiful and pleasant looking than a place they are no longer bound to. It’s the age old pop punk theme of hating your hometown with a morbid spin.” The next punk rock song to add to your playlist as you skateboard around town has arrived.

Review: Charli XCX – Crash

Review: Tombstones In Their Eyes – A Higher Place

Review: Rozzi – Berry

Review: Cold Years – Goodbye to Misery

Review: Animalweapon – Set Of Constraints

Review: Midtown – Living Well Is The Best Revenge

Review: Dear Spring – “Every Now and Then”

Review: The Injured List – Blue 32

Review: Sandman Sleeps – Crisis Actor

Review: Telltale – Lie Your Way Out

Review: Riverby – Absolution

Review: Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends

Review: Stress Dolls – Forward

Review: Oso Oso – Sore Thumb

Review: Proxy – “Don’t Let Me Die In New Jersey”