ALBUM REVIEW: TEENAGE WRIST - 'STILL LOVE'
The Los Angeles alt-rockers in Teenage Wrist have a killer new album, Still Love, out today, August 4th on Epitaph. This insanely talented power duo has blazed their own path in the indie and punk adjacent underworlds over the past eight years. On Still Love, the band refines their capital ‘R’ rock riffs, while also managing to slow things down and get weird & spacey, creating a best-of-both-worlds tapestry for the listener to wrap themselves in.
Album opener and lead single, “Sunshine” kicks things off with a wall of distorted guitar crunch. Vocalist [guitarist & bassist] Marshall Gallagher croons over an undercurrent of fuzzy guitars and drummer Anthony Salazar’s massive snare and cymbal attack. The song’s arrangement, execution, and overall vibe feel like it was excavated from a mid 90’s rock-n-roll time capsule in all the best ways possible. Speaking of epic 90’s vibes, “Dark Sky” features none other than SA Martinez from 311. Yes, the man who taught us all how to get “Down” back in the day drops a sick guest verse on Teenage Wrist’s latest record and the world is a better place for it. Up next is the epic title track, “Still Love” featuring stunning guest vocals from the sirens in Softcult. This song is a lumbering sing-along anthem for the ages. Just try getting that chorus out of your head, try it!
Photo: Joe Calixto
With the album’s three main singles behind us, it’s time to explore Still Love’s deeper cuts. Buckle up folks, things get even better. It’s rare for bands to create such a well-sequenced record as this. With all the singles front-loaded in the beginning, it’s kind of insane that there’s a second trio of killer tracks toward the end, that for our money, are some of the best songs on the album. The back to back to back delivery of bangers like “Cold Case” “Cigarette Two Step” and “Humbug” is like spotting dual unicorns or something. How are their two sets of killer trios on a single album? It’s statistically mind-boggling. “Cold Case” is a brooding shoegazer, “Cigarette Two Step” is a Deftones-esque headbanger featuring guest vocals from Fear Before the March of Flames singer David Marion; while “Humbug” is another buoyant rocker featuring former Teenage Wrist bassist/vocalist Kamtin Mohager, credited as his new project, Heavenward. The craziest part is, this second sonic trinity is sandwiched between two other genius tracks, “Wax Poetic” and the otherworldly, “Sprawled.” Sister Void’s guest vocals take the already infectious shoegaze of “Wax Poetic” to another level, while “Sprawled” crescendos with a wicked saxophone solo that quite literally takes you on a freaking journey.
By all accounts, Teenage Wrist has done it, my friends. Their new record is packed to the brim with golden tracks that run the gamut from crowd-surfing ragers to moody, existential contemplation numbers. Oftentimes, we, the rock-starved public, will be lucky enough to get a solid new album that coulda been trimmed down to a rad EP if needed; but no, Teenage Wrist’s new record is a full-on album of the highest order. Blast this sucker at full volume as the summer sun sets behind you. It’s what the Get Some Magazine doctor orders.
