I watched all the videos leading up to this release, after the first one, I saw hooked me in as they have grown away from being a punk or hardcore band and making catchy 90's alternative music for 2025. First off Kat Moss only uses a harsher, hard-core flavored snarl as a point of accentuation. Her main style of delivery is a slacker croon that has more in common with Veruca Salt. The second song, "B.A.B.E," is more upbeat on the verses in a punk fashion with a more deliberate hooky chorus. With bands like this, I have learned to steer clear of interviews. When I even get peeks of it, there is plenty of stupid pandering with tangents about hardcore being more inclusive, apparently so much so that it includes music that isn't hardcore at all, with songs like "Fantasy" that would have been all over the radio in 1994.
This feels like it is who this band really is, as their attempts at punk often felt like they were trying too hard in the past. Production-wise wise this album has the slick sound of Turnstile's last album, but without all the bells and whistles. The hooks stand up on their own and need little bolstering to make them effective. All the songs are quick three-minute ditties. Some of the more quirky expansions of their sound can be heard on "Tonight (I'm Afraid)". It is about as punk as the Offspring, with Moss' voice sounding its best. "Fleshed Out' has a more angular groove that the vocals smooth out. Her voice is given a little more love in post-production, and it pays off as it is the centerpiece of this album.
"Let You Drown" is the first song that kinda coasts along, and does not hook me in like the previous songs did, but at this point, we are six songs into the album so they have had a pretty solid winning streak. "Cellophane" has more of a grunge grit to the guitar. Her vocals glide over this with little aggression to them, but this contrast is what makes these songs work so well. The harder riffs that lead into these songs begin to find a formula in place as the verse, when the vocals come, find them on the loud-to-soft blueprint bands like Hole used. In fact, the riff to "Suffer the Fool" reminds me of Everclear.
When you think of grunge, what stands out is that those bands came from a punk background, and they evolved into something with more moods to color their angst, which is this album's strength as well. "Haunted" is the second song that does not connect with me on my initial listen, and the second listen did not find me really warming up to it, though it feels like Weezer in how it gives a grunge chug to 50s pop. The growl of the bass rumbles its way into the last song, which is another more uptempo stab in the punk direction. I will give this album a 9.5, as it's an improvement in song writing that displays a commitment to melody, and takes the band in a more honest stylistic direction that makes for some great post-grunge.
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