The Used - Heartwork
Label: Big Noise
Press release: “The new album plays on the emotions, the sincerity, and the vulnerability of the first record and In Love and Death, with a little bit of the flair from Lies for the Liars,” vocalist Bert McCracken said. “Standing in the streaming circle pit with Kesha and Halsey, the album is just as modern sounding. John Feldmann’s production is that professional. It sounds really good. Those are two really random examples, but I think if you listen to both of those records, the songs are all over the place: dance, pop, actual punk rock riffs and drums. I think music is so all over the place right now that The Used fits in perfectly.”
My thoughts: Say what you want about The Used but you definitely can't accuse them of being boring. Heartwork is all over the place tonally and although some songs (Big Wanna Be, Cathedral Bell) aren't really up my alley the juxtaposition with the really aggressive songs (Blow Me, Gravity's Rainbow) is fantastic when listening from front to back. The buried gem here is probably 1984 (Infinite Jest) for me but in any event Heartwork is worth your time.
Label: Pure Noise Records
Press release: The band’s highly-anticipated third LP is due out on May 1 via Pure Noise, and sees the quintet questioning the world around them. “I want people to listen to it and feel something and think about things,” says frontman Henry Cox. “The aim of the whole record is to make people angry. It’s to make them go ‘Well, this pisses me off, how can I change it? What is one thing that I can personally do – that I can start doing today – to make a difference?’ Because we can do better than this. We just need to start.
My thoughts: Given the three songs I heard before listening to the full album I would've assumed BM was going softer but man did that shock me on track 2, 1's and 0's, nestled between two of the aforementioned singles it hit me like a punch to the jaw and it was fantastic. It then took until track 7 to get heavy again as BM have continued to evolve their post-grunge sound they created on their last full length. The back part of this album shines with Liquid (the last of the three tracks mentioned in the opening sentence) as well as tracks 8 - 10 are among the five best or so on Glue.
Label: Self-Released
Press release: Adding to the seemingly never-ending list of side projects formed in the year of 2020 – aka the year musicians are all stuck at home not touring – The Story So Far’s Parker Cannon has just surprised fans with a brand new pop-punk EP under the moniker No Pressure. Yep! That’s right, after slowing things down with his main band, Cannon is back to his punk rock, blink-182-like roots with a brand new batch of songs.
My thoughts: I was lead to believe this was a hardcore project but it realyl is not. It's fast punk rock with Parker Cannon's signature vocals. It's pretty raw but given that this was likely recorded in a home studio within the last few months I will not hold it against them. Definitely worth a listen if you have 10 minutes (the short song lengths also added to the credence of the hardcore band).
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