Emarosa is one of the bands that have gracefully reinvented themselves. This pop-rock album includes a shameless appreciation of radio pop tunes, but executes at a level that is far-beyond the top 40, generating a unique sound while exploring the a depths of love and loss. One of the best of the year.

A number of punk/hardcore/metalcore bands that have graciously redefined their sound in recent years. While Code Orange's previous releases were innovative and interesting, this BDSM Club Industrial Glitch playlist is as empty as it is confusing.

I know absolutely nothing about this band, but they're a bit grungy, a little shoegazey, and they get get pretty heavy towards the end of this EP. The perfect amount of dissonance to keep things interesting, interloped with moody, dark vocals. Very nice EP. I'll definitely come back a couple more times.

Acoustic pop-punk. Half original tracks, half live acoustic recordings. Some great new material and fun live recordings. Nothing out-of-the-box, but a nice new listen from masters of their craft.

If the album followed the direction of its opening track, God Approved Insurance Plan, this would be an album of the year contender. Each subsequent song loses momentum before the whole album just becomes a blend of mid-tier pop-rock songs. Lot's of great ideas and snippets of brilliance, but not an album I'll come back to time and time again.

The first top-tier album of 2023. For fans of Tiny Moving Parts, Front Bottoms, and early Worthwhile. An album that will translate to a great live show with upbeat guitar parts, jumpy hooks, and lyrics you'll want to scream back at the stage.

Because this album needed to be dragged out for a full hour.

I approached Tickets To My Downfall with optimism. When characteristics of pop punk culture started showing up in the Soundcloud rap space, making the leap from mainstream hip-hop to pop punk became less of a stretch. It's exciting to see bigger names bring this style of music to a wider array of fans. As someone who has listened to an above-average amount of pop punk, I thought TTMD was a purely "okay" album. There were some fun, interesting tracks, but nothing special--a 50 or 60 ... read more

The old Avril is back! After a decade of questionable decisions (Hello Kitty, Chad Kroeger, etc,) Avril returns to true form with the release of Love Sux. Full of energy from the start, Love Sux is track after track of early 2000s pop punk bangers. Fast-paced, peppy, and well-produced, this album will be a staple of the 2020s power-chord pop punk resurgence.

As a huge fan of pop punk, I've been intrigued by the transition from the sad boi pop punk era of the late 2000s to mid-2010s to the ... read more

Mom Jeans has emerged from their sophomore slump and taken their sound in a new direction. Puppy Love was a weak performance, but the bar was set so high after Best Buds that you can't really blame them. It will be difficult for Mom Jeans to write an album as unique and cohesive as Best Buds, but Sweet Tooth offers a new directions and shakes off the unfortunate 2nd-album-jitters of Puppy Love. This album blends elements of the modern resurgence of power-chord heavy pop punk with a little bit ... read more