Album Review: Dear Darkness by Dan Andriano & The Bygones (by Lara Roberts)

I’ve been a big fan of Alkaline Trio ever since I first set ears on Fuck You Aurora all those years ago, and I always loved Andriano’s smooth voice juxtaposed against Skiba’s vocals, with them both complementing each other. I always enjoyed Andriano’s songs and craved more of them, lapping up solo projects he’s worked on.

This album starts off as I had expected and hoped, with Narcissus, Amateur Classic Narcissist providing the reassuring familiarity of Andriano’s silky vocals melting over his guitar, and Sea Level and Dear Darkness both sounding straight out of the books of Alkaline Trio. There’s plenty of Andriano’s distinctive sound from the start – beautiful, rich, and smooth, just like that first cup of coffee in the morning.

However, despite the coffee being one you could easily drink all day, you find yourself reaching for a different taste – the flavours on your tongue are getting a bit stale after a few mugs of the same brew. You’re looking for a pick me up to carry you through the rest of the work day. Wrong provides that something a little different. It starts with the familiar, deep vocals over gentle piano, before building up to more of an anthemic sound, incorporating a weird 80s metal guitar line before ending with a fade-out. Unfortunately for me, the song ends up living up to its name. The Excess suffers the same fate, with a strange jazzy start and 80s metal-esque ending.

It’s at this point that you find yourself reaching for the first batch of coffee that you ground that morning. You realise that there was nothing wrong with the first cup – it was dependable, likeable, and much more enjoyable than the others. Which is good, because Andriano’s brooding voice and stunning lyrics in both The Rest Of You and Into Your Dream (The Sophie Moon) take us back to the original blend of the album, carrying us through to the end, ensuring a strong finish with no bitter aftertaste.

Stream and download Dear Darkness in all the usual places and like Dan Andriano & The Bygones on Facebook here.

This review was written by Lara Roberts.

Album Review: The Puget Sound by The Drolls (by Chris Bishton)

That Puget Sound is the debut album, released in January on Snappy Little Numbers, from Seattle's The Drolls. The band consist of Denny and Josh, ex-members of much loved 90s pop punks Sicko, teamed with Julie D from Chincilla and, more recently, Guest Directors.

With two thirds of a band that I adored when I was younger, The Drolls have been pretty high on my bands to keep an eye on radar. I've been anticipating this release ever since they first formed a few years ago and put out a single in 2019. Ean, the other member of Sicko, had also relatively recently formed a new band – The Subjunctives – and put out a debut album with a pretty familiar sound and I was hoping The Drolls had also continued this trend. Although Sicko were never on Lookout Records, they easily could have been (they put out a split with Lookout alumni The Mr T Experience), and to my mind if you've loved it before you can never truly grow bored of that sort of pop punk.

The album kicks off with Getting Old. I love this! It sounds like Sicko – fast and catchy – but whereas I used to relate to songs about my wisdom teeth hurting, I now find myself smiling to a song about dragging myself out the door and feeling out of place. That's not to say this song is downbeat or depressing in anyway, by the way, it is not! It's super energetic and a lot of fun.

Nobody Move is the second track and it's more jaunty and distinct from both the opener and the sound of their previous band, signalling that not everything on this album is carbon copied. There's still a liveliness to it, but it's the first sign that their sound can be a little different. Whilst it should be noted that at their heart they have Sicko's pop punk DNA, The Drolls are a band that are a little more 'refined'. There's an element of The Replacements/Big Star/Lemonheads/Sugar all in here. An indie guitar sound seems to have found its way into Denny and Josh's playing as they've gotten older.

The rest of the tracks on the album jump and dash around, picking up on this power pop punk vibe as well as songs that are more rooted in the Sicko vein. Sad Little King, Worse Things and Mythology, for example, are more fixed on the power side. Whereas, listen to a song like Bad Ear and you'd be forgiven for thinking it could have come from them at the end of the 90s. Alternate Timeline is the only song that I'm a bit nonplussed about as it's a bit slow, but it comes at the end of the first side of the record so, if you're listening to it on vinyl, it feels like the right place for it.

The second half of the album starts with Downstream, which brings us back up to speed and then it's Rehashed: Rehashed – a 'reworking' of the Sicko song, Rehashed, that sits perfectly in the second half of the album. It's a little slower, which allows you more time to take in the vocals, and the line "you've heard this song before 'cause I'm not gonna care about it anymore" sums up how impeccable their sense of humour seems to be. A song about bands sounding the same from a record put out almost 30 years ago now has me really grinning.

The album finishes with In Big Country, a cover by the band Big Country. It's a great way to end and I can't help think it's another nod to their past as their previous band's debut also ended with a cover (Closer To Fine by the Indigo Girls, which to this day remains one of my most favourite covers).

If you like The Drolls, you're never not going to compare them to Sicko. I think that's fine as, after all, the band themselves make no effort to hideaway from their past. Thankfully, it doesn't differ too much, but it differs enough to sound fresh and relevant. As the band state, "Two of us used to be in another band together. Now we're in this band." and that it's an album with "some energetic power pop songs about ageing, wasting time, the environment, political BS and one really fun cover song" …Pretty much what I want from a pop punk album.

Stream and download The Puget Sound on Bandcamp here.

Like The Drolls on Facebook here.

This review was written by Chris Bishton.

Album Review: Sidesplitter by Sidesplitter (by Emma Prew)

Sidesplitter are a new – very new if you discount the past two years of the pandemic – Melbourne, Australia, based band formed of members of The Eradicator, Foxtrot, Dawn Of The Jackal and The Suicide Tuesdays. The Suicide Tuesdays were one of my absolutely favourite Bandcamp discoveries of the past few years and I was gutted when they decided to call it a day. However, I’m really glad that vocalist and guitarist Joe Guiton has continued to make music, first with Boom! Civil War and now with Sidesplitter.

Joe got in touch with us about reviewing the band’s debut EP and despite describing it as being different to his previous musical outputs – ‘shorter, much louder and screamier’ – I was very keen to check it out. I figured that if it wasn’t quite my cup of tea then someone else at CPRW would be up for reviewing it but… obviously, I loved it so it’s all mine! Although I can’t wait for everyone else to hear this, when it is released to the world on the 1st of April (no joke).

The first of the three tracks is the relentless 49 second long 2020. ‘Screamy’ was certainly a good descriptor, at least for the first half of this short track, but it’s also wonderfully melodic and cathartic. The track is about the dire state of the world at the moment – and, indeed, in 2020 – and how people can be so needlessly selfish just to get their own way or prove their own point. The track may be short but Sidesplitter certainly manage to pack a lot into it, including some brilliant call and response vocals. I can only dream of how good this must sound live. You can watch the slightly longer than 49 second video of 2020 here.

2020 is followed by Heartbeat Of The Underground, a longer (just over two minutes) but no less ferocious hardcore punk track. It’s a what some might think of as a true punk rock song, with lyrics about protesting the system and those who tell us how we should live our lives. It’s angry but it’s also passionate and optimistic about wanting a better world. The chorus in particular is just begging for a crowd to add unofficial gang vocals – ‘An open letter to the ones, Who preach their hate, We lit the fire we tear it down, We liberate, No more spreading lies, To build divide, We don’t need alibis, We'll live our lives the way we want, We choose our fate’.

Just The Way We Are closes out the EP in style. My initial thoughts after listening to the EP for the first time is that this track is the most similar to Joe’s previous bands in that it is a little less ‘hardcore’ but is no less melodic and fist-in-the-air inducing. The track also features Joe’s brilliant storytelling songwriting style which I absolutely love. From the opening lyrics of ‘We watched the sunrise over the city’ through to the second verse ‘The day gets longer, and the drinks get stronger’ and the song’s closing words ‘It’s just the way we are’, this song is an honest and personal one that will be relatable for many. Just The Way We Are is about friendship and confronting the demons that come with adult life with people who care about you by your side. A brilliant way to finish the EP and probably my favourite song I’ve heard so far this year.

As I said earlier, the EP will be released on 1st April – you can preorder it (and listen to 2020) on Bandcamp now. There is also an EP launch show planned for 8th April at The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, Melbourne, with Udder Ubductees, Von Stache and The Shadow League.

In the meantime, like Sidesplitter on Facebook and check out the band members’ previous work.

This review was written by Emma Prew.

Album Review: Gurnal Gadafi by Gurnal Gadafi (by Emma Prew)

Hardcore isn’t exactly my go-to genre of music but every now and then I do like to delve into the heavier side of punk rock. I especially enjoy it if the person shouting in my ears isn’t your average angry white man – it’s just so much more refreshing. And so that’s why when checking out all of the bands playing at this year’s Manchester Punk Festival, Gurnal Gadafi grabbed my attention – that and their amusing name, of course. Gurnal Gadafi are a four piece based in Manchester, featuring Willy Binghi on drums, Devon Cryer on guitar, Charlie Cross on bass and Cookie Love on vocals, who blend spoken word and poetry with brutal hardcore punk.

At the time of me doing my MPF research (six members of the CPRW team will be each sharing ten picks for the festival next month), the band had only recorded and released one song – the venomous, short and fast Matador. It’s great – go and listen to it here. I soon found out that the band would be releasing their debut EP at the end of February, which I hear has been five years in the making. For me, this meant waiting almost no time at all, but I imagine for Northern folks who have seen Gurnal Gadafi live, this may feel like a long time coming. However, I don’t think anyone will be disappointed with what the band have put together here.

The EP is eight tracks in under 15 minutes although, surprisingly, Matador isn’t one of them. After opening with spoken word piece titled Gary and introducing the EP as being ‘poetic extracts from a time and context long lost in your speakers’, Gurnal Gadafi waste no time in amping up the volume for a ferocious, face-melting series of hardcore bangers about the ills of modern life. Second track, Alexa, is a big hit with me as well as the two parter of Come Down With Me 1 and Come Down With Me 2. The first of the two is a raw, emotional and hard-hitting spoken word piece about, you guessed it, a come down after a wild night (or a series of wild nights). The second is actually the exact same lyrics but set to the heavy music I’ve come to expect from Gurnal Gadafi. Each version hits differently but both are powerful in their own way, showing how expressive and well crafted Cookie Love’s lyrics are. And that goes for tracks about drug use such as Pingers – even though I can’t relate to them, I’m obviously not the target audience – and lady parts, Fire In My Hole, too!

Stream and download Gurnal Gadafi on Bandcamp – if you buy/download it, you’ll be rewarded with a bonus track, as well.

Like Gurnal Gadafi on Facebook and follow them on Instagram, then go and see them when they play MPF. I’ll be standing at the back, trying to avoid getting crushed in the inevitable mosh pit.

This review was written by Emma Prew.

Album Review: Best by Forever Unclean

We’ve been following the work of Danish indie skate punk trio Forever Unclean since the release of their first EP, Shreds, back in 2015. Since then, it’s been absolutely amazing seeing the band grow with each release. Not only has each release been better than the last, they’ve also continued to build a following each time they’ve made their way to the UK to play some shows. Seeing them play to a packed New Cross Inn for Do It Together Fest in early 2020 was one of my highlights of the entire weekend. Something has been missing though and that was a full length release from the band. On New Year’s Day that was finally remedied when the band, with the support of Disconnect Disconnect Records, Hidden Home Records and Nasty Cut Records, released Best. I’d been eagerly awaiting the release for months after drummer Leo mentioned a full length was coming when he appeared on the CPRW Podcast. It then took me forever to get around to reviewing it because sometimes I’m slow. Here it is though, my review of Best.

Looking at the tracklist before hitting play, it’s nice to see Forever Unclean sticking with their tradition of short, one word track names. Best begins with Dream. Dream starts with just some guitar and Lasse’s familiar vocals before the entire band comes in. The song is about the realities of going on tour and how, despite it seeming like you’re living out on your dreams, it can be very hard on you mentally. A solid start to the album. Persona was one of the songs that was released as a single before Best’s release. Persona is about learning that it’s okay to be the person you are and not feeling like you have to be somebody else. I really liked the crunch that the opening guitars had before flowing into the usual Forever Unclean sound. There are moments during the song where Lasse’s vocals sound at their most strained which adds a lot of anguish to the song. Rules is just thirty-three seconds – which is short even by Forever Unclean standards. During the track, Lasse asks many questions about dealing with a social situation and not knowing how to act. Despite the short song length the band manage to pack a lot in, which is impressive.

The fourth song is named Crowds. The song continues with the theme of struggling to be yourself and not knowing how to conduct yourself in a social situation. I really liked the line “and it seems like such a waste of breath, to berate my ceiling.” This creates such a good image of laying in your bed with your mind running through your day and over-thinking all the things you should have done or said. I also enjoyed the “ba ba ba ba” section which will unite a crowd in singing along. Woods was another song that was picked as a single. The track starts slowly before the vocals come in and the song explodes into life. This slower moment is great, giving you a short rest after what, so far, has been a pretty relentless album. Once again, the lyrics do a wonderful job of painting a picture. On this occasion it’s the band and their friends when they were younger going off into the woods with their guitars and having a wonderful time. As the song goes on, there becomes a bit of a divide between the friends with one half wanting to have fun forever and the others thinking that they can’t live like that forever. This is a thing that happens in most friendship groups, so a lot of people will be able to relate to the song. The sixth song, Mandy, sadly isn’t a Barry Manilow cover. It is, however, a nice love song about how spending time with that special someone is a great escape from the horror that can be life. This is a super catchy song that you’ll pick up in no time – I’m certain it will get great reactions from live crowds whenever the band play it. Scars, another single released in the album’s build up, is another short song that manages to pack a lot into its duration. It’s a song of two halves. The first is just Lasse and his guitar and the second is the full band. I like the effect that is seemingly created by Lasse standing a bit further away from the microphone in the recording. It has the great live feeling to it.

Kold is the first song that the band have released where the band use their mother tongue, Danish. As handy as it is that bands sing in English, I do always enjoy when foreign bands put out songs in their own language as well. After a quick Google translate, I deduced that the Kold is about feeling emotionless, cold and soulless and just not caring about anything anymore. Anyone who’s suffered with depression at any point will no doubt understand the feelings in this song, assuming they speak Danish or use Google translate (probably quite hard to do if you’re watching the band live though). Kold also has a really cool guitar riff at the start that pulls you in and will get stuck in your head. Lasse delivers a stunning vocal performance on the ninth song, Broken. The emotion in their voice, particular during intro of the song is quite something to experience. At a lengthy two minutes and thirty seconds, this is the longest song on Best. I think they needed that extended time to achieve everything they wanted to with the song. There’s a slow bit, a big sing-along, melody changes and even some backing vocals (I think they’re drummer Leo’s) during the track. There’s absolutely loads going on. Listen for yourself to experience it all. The penultimate song on Best is titled Smile. Leo puts in one hell of a performance behind the drums on this song. He powers the band through the first half of the track before the band slow things back down for a more emotional ending to the song and it’s completed with some gang vocals. I do love gang vocals. Best is completed with the song Change. To me, this is Forever Unclean’s attempt at a country song and I love it. The opening of the song invites another big sing-along and it’s not too long before the band revert to the indie skate punk sound that they’ve become so well known for and then they switch to a huge sounding segment to finish the album off in the Best way possible.

I always think of Forever Unclean as a UK band despite the fact that they’re based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and are Danish. The reason being is that they’ve become a big part of the UK punk community during the last few years and, like I said in the intro, it always feels as if they play to bigger and bigger crowds whenever they return to the UK. With the release of Best I feel like they’ll be playing to their biggest UK crowds ever. We shouldn’t have to wait long to see them again either as they’re due in the UK for Manchester Punk Festival in April. I cannot wait to see them again.

Stream and download Best on Bandcamp here.

Like Forever Unclean on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.

Album Review: So It Goes by The Butts

The Butts are a pop punk band from Austin, Texas. I’ve been aware of them since the summer of 2019 when they released their Nightmare At Area 51 EP. Now the band are back with a ten song full length titled So It Goes. Lead by the dual vocals of Kurt Koegler and Kevy Bergman, I was hoping for another big slice of fun pop punk from the band. Time to dive right in.

So It Goes begins with the song I’m Getting Old. This, as you probably would have guessed, is a song about ageing. As soon as the song starts there’s this brilliant energy that invites you in to the entire album and I particularly enjoyed the use of the keys in the track. From the outset The Butts show off the dual vocal capabilities as Kurt and Kevy share the opening verse and then combine for the chorus. There’s a feeling of positivity in the song that you don’t often hear in songs about getting older. There’s a message about how no matter all the ways it seems that your body is crumbling, it’s okay that you’re getting old as there’s plenty of things to look forward to. Next up is Ruiner. This track keeps the energy going as Kevy takes over lead vocal duties. Ruiner is about being that person who makes a scene and spoils special occasions with their behaviour, realising that it’s you and wanting to change. The song continues at a high octane throughout the majority of its duration, it only really slows and has a change of melody as Kevy croons one last chorus.

The third song is titled I Wanna Take You To Prague. It’s Kurt’s turn to take lead vocals on this upbeat song about getting their life in order so that they can take their partner to Prague. The hook line of the song’s title really grabs you each time it’s sung and Kurt sings about all the fun things they can do once they get there. It’s not a song that reinvents the pop punk wheel but it does put a smile on my face which is all that matters to me. The Black Tar Heroine was released as a single by the band in December 2021 in the build up to the album’s release. This is a sad song that tells the story of the relationship between a shop worker and an addict. It starts out with the shop worker being on break and the addict coming and asking for some drugs. As the song and story plays out, the worker helps with getting things from the shop before he sees them at their lowest and the last time they meet where the addict is at their worst before getting taken away by an ambulance and is never seen again. Like I said, it’s a sad song but also a great piece of songwriting story telling. Catholic Guilt brings us to the halfway mark of the album. The Butts’ sound takes a bit of a turn on the first half of the track with a slow style that I wasn’t such a fan of but as soon as they bring the tempo back up they pulled me back in immediately. The track is about growing up as a Catholic and the confusion that it seemed to bring Kurt. The song shows the band aren’t afraid to step away from their bread and butter pop punk sound with slower tempos, changing melodies and some acoustic lullabies included. This is such a creative song.

Track six is Instagram Vacation. This song sees Kevy and Kurt share vocals once again, each telling the story of showing off about their lives on social media. I think there’s a lot of tongue in cheek fun poking towards people who post their lives on the Internet, in the hope that people will see what they’re up to and feel jealous. After the serious topics of the previous two tracks, this was a nice palette cleanser with more of a fun, silly song. Outlanders At The George Room is another more serious song. It’s a song about an unfortunate visit to a bar in their hometown that’s run by and is full of racists and homophobes. It doesn’t sound like a pleasant place to spend any time at all. The lyrics do a great job in setting the scene. If you take the time to listen, I think we can all imagine what the place looks like. When I first listened to The Final Text Exchange it hit me hard. The song opens with a audio clip from former president George W. Bush addressing a school shooting. From there, Kevy takes lead vocals and plays the part of a child trapped in the school whilst the horror of a school shooting takes place. During the song they sing the messages that the child sends to their father. Kurt then takes the second verse of the dad replying to his child trying to calm them and give them hope that it’ll be okay. Finally the song finishes with Kevy telling they dad that they got out but which teacher and friend didn’t, before a clip of former president Barrack Obama talking about a school shooting. Having the two different presidents bookending the song shows how this is a problem in the United States that won’t go away and makes the whole scenario even more tragic. This is a really powerful song that should perhaps come with a trigger warning.

The penultimate song is titled No Step On Snek. This is a song that goes on an all out assault against red neck Americans. The ones who have big pick up trucks, guns, love for the president and preach all lives matter. In my head, I’m also imagining them missing some teeth and chewing on a piece of straw. That last image might be because of the harmonica and foot stomping sound used at the end of the song. It’s a fun song that also highlights that there are some rubbish people out there who still need a lot of educating. I can imagine this song being quite the crowd pleaser at a Butts show. The tenth and final song is the album’s title track, So It Goes. At the risk of repeating every review I’ve written over the past six months, the final song on an album needs to be big and The Butts have achieved this. So It Goes is much slower than anything else on the album and really feels like a barroom sing-along. I think each of the verses on the song is sung by a different person and they talk about the rubbish things that happen in their life but how, overall, they are just trying to get on with things. This is the kind of song I could listen to twenty times in a row and find a different cool lyric each and every time. A very fitting way to finish the album.

I was so impressed by So It Goes. The Butts seem to have taken their songwriting to a whole new level here. It’s still a lot of fun but the range of topics that are covered is varied. When I first sat down to listen to it, I did not expect to be emotionally moved by one song let alone two. This is a must listen if you’re a fan of pop punk music.

Stream and downloaded So It Goes on Bandcamp here.

Like The Butts on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.

CPRW Playlist: February 2022

CPRW Playlist: Here's what Brett, Chris, Dan#2, Emma, Ilse, Lara, Lee, Marcus, Omar, Rich, Richard, Robyn, Theo and myself have been listening to in February.