Pool Kids' third album, Easier Said Than Done, shimmers with emotional clarity and courage. Adrenalizing and irresistible, it brings the dynamism of the band’s live show into the studio, showcasing a style that's unmistakably their own. Pool Kids first started playing on Tallahassee's house show circuit. The band earned a fan in Paramore's Hayley Williams with their debut album, 2018's Music to Practice Safe Sex To. After they filled out to a four-piece -- Andy Anaya on guitar, Nicolette Alvarez on bass, Caden Clinton on drums, and Christine Goodwyne on guitar and vocals -- their 2022 self-titled record netted critical acclaim with its lush, high-contrast mixture of pop, emo, and math rock. They've shared stages with The Mountain Goats, PUP, Beach Bunny, and La Dispute. They hold fast to their DIY principles: Anyone can do what Pool Kids do. Anyone can start a band. For Easier Said Than Done, Pool Kids worked with producer Mike Vernon Davis (Foxing, Great Grandpa). They funded the record themselves, and spent five weeks recording in Seattle. To save money during sessions, they stayed with friends, in motels, and slept on the floor of the studio. "We did a lot of searching, playing each song a million different ways and deciding which one sounded the best," says Goodwyne. With the completed record in hand, the band signed to Epitaph. On the thundering "Tinted Windows," Goodwyne grits her teeth at the way spending months on tour and missing important milestones can stress close relationships. "Exit Plan" memorializes the experience of saying goodbye to friends at the end of a string of shows, knowing those powerful bonds may never feel the same again. On "Bad Bruise," Goodwyne makes a bid for understanding: "Pretty please, empathy / Got me on my knees," she sings while the band closes ranks around her. Powerful collectivity rings through Easier Said Than Done -- in the dynamic interplay between Goodwyne and Anaya's guitars, in Alvarez's gravitational basslines, in Clinton's whirling drum patterns. Pool Kids lock together into a unified force, propelling themselves forward into hard-won release. Easier Said Than Done impresses one of the most important reminders anyone can hear: You don’t have to do anything in this world alone.
At this point, the Menzingers are an absolute institution. The Philadelphia punk legends’ multi-decade reputation as road warriors with an unbeatable catalog is cemented as hard truth—and their seventh album, Some Of It Was True, stands as their most immediate-sounding and energetic record to date. The follow-up to 2019’s sensational Hello Exile accomplishes the daunting task of capturing the Menzingers’ distinctive live energy in the confines of the studio, resulting in a sound that’s both rich, raw, and complementary to the group’s increasingly prismatic songwriting approach. More than 15 years in, the Menzingers are still holding their listeners square in the immediate present, and Some Of It Was True documents that power in thrilling fashion.