Talk About It is the fourth album from young Isle Of Wight pop punk trio Grade 2 who are Sid Ryan, Jack Chatfield, Jacob Hull who recorded the album at Joplin House in Kent with Dan Lucas behind the controls.
The album opens with the urgent rush of Cut Throat a rampaging riot of intense hardcore punk, making clear just what a Cut Throat world we currently live in, the guitars are raging at 120mph while the drummer goes properly hyperactive.
Hanging Onto You is a pop punk love anthem for that woman he wants to look deep into the eyes off, because she actually makes all his worries go away, the sweet lyrics are put with some super bouncy, fist pumping guitars and backing vocals and a dirty great keyboard injection or two.
Standing In The Downpour a very English seaside song, you have gone to the beach and are getting soaked instead of lying on the beach, this has a classic power pop punk edge, almost like The Adverts but with gruffer vocals.
Better Today don't we all want a better today, they hope they can go back to simpler times when everyone was saner and calmer, the guitars rage around a cool riff, there friends no longer recognize them, they are totally transformed from that sweet kid they once were. The title song Talk About It is primed to be a live favourite, a full-on fist pumping chorus and the keyboards coming through to keep that riff flying on, with everyone singing along to the na na na part.
Don't Worry About Me in nothing like the classic Wildhearts sing along but makes clear, they have made the choices they made and are living exactly the life they want too, so just shut up and let them be in a great swaggering punk band, touring the world, playing festivals and having a blast doing it. This is a great manifesto for turning your dreams into reality.
Crash And Burn is a warning to make sure you know when to slow down, so you don't Crash And Burn too soon, over a taut riff and crisp drumming, that lets the vocals burn with intensity, claiming all the rewards and overcoming the risks involved, before the searing guitar and galloping bass really get going.
Smugglers Haven is a short sharp blast of intense punk describing the small Island they come from. Rotten is a perfect description of our times, over super speedy guitar and frantic as all hell drums and that call and response of its Rotten to the core, looking at how controlling the narrative allows you to control everything, or think that you do.
Wasteland is for another town that looks like a hollow ghost of what it ought to be, everything has gone online and disappeared, they want to live in a town buzzing with life, not some desolate Wasteland, which is why they took to the road, to make sure they didn't have to remain in a town that's dying or already dead.
The album closes with Otherside a great swaggering anthem for having made it as a band, able to tour the world and have a blast getting everyone to sing and dance along with them on this journey, so go see them play and pump your fists along to this, when it breaks down and builds back up it feels like they have just had a huge sugar rush and they are ready to rock some more.
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