Bubblegum pop punk, as if it were blaring from the open window of a car that’s clearly having more fun than you. A decade going, this is JOYRIDE!’s fourth LP, jam-packed with syrupy and finely-tuned female vocals, aided by fast instrumentation; guitar riffs and tom-drum bridges in all the right places. But here’s the deal: it’s 2022 and pop punk isn’t all sheen and passive content—it’s fun and provocative all at once, and that’s why I like it. “In the Afterglow” gets in your head with “We get attached to what we think we know,” while “Flyover States” brings environmental disasters to light, and then “Routine Maintenance” spells out “k-i-s-s-i-n-g” in the chorus, like you’d expect from the genre. Masterful.
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