The So So GlosKamikaze

After a handful of records that highlighted the potential of The So So Glos, without ever fully realising it, Kamikaze is the New York punk quartet’s most robust offering to date.

This is a band that has always sounded like all the members are chewing gum and sneering while they’re playing. In the past they’ve been hamstrung by how cool they come across. Like vintage-Strokes-shirt-and-sunglasses-at-night cool, so cool that it’s off-putting. On Kamikaze though, it sounds like the songs they’re writing are about actually efforts to communicate something, and not just about appearing sloppy and fucked up like it was the pose most likely to get them featured in VICE magazine.

On Kamikaze though, it sounds like the songs they’re writing are about actually efforts to communicate something, and not just about appearing sloppy and fucked up like it was the pose

The punk rock looseness of their self-titled debut is still around, but now the Clash worship of songs like Kings Country II Ballad of a So So Glo has taken on an exciting modern guise. Even if the album slows down towards the tail half as the band lets dancier rhythms take over from the riffs, Kamikaze still manages to prove that The So So Glos sound better when you can hear them trying. So that’s the lesson kids, trying is the coolest thing you can do, yo.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Sunny Side, Going Out Swingin’, Cadaver
STICK THIS NEXT TO: The Murder City Devils, DZ Deathrays, Joyce Manor