Album Name: It Only Gets Worse
Artist: Small Town Sindrome Brain Gandy: Vocals, Guitar, Main Songwriter John Hakala: Vocals, Bass Adam Mahoney: Drums
Released: October 2021
Label: JAB Records
Rating: 6.5/10
Tracklist
Insomnia
It Only Gets Worse
On My Own
Pretending
Tell Me Why
To Nothing At All
Too Far Gone
Minnesota alt rockers Small Town Sindrome are releasing their second album 'It Only Gets Worse' on the 29th of October. The pop influenced punk album is a great follow up to their previous 'How This Ends' debut. Small Town Sindrome have gained themselves an impressive world-wide following. After forming in 2018 the three piece released their debut album in 2019. 'How This Ends' much like recent album 'It Only Gets Worse' was high energy classic punk rock with creative pop melodies. From the albums first note 'It Only Gets Worse' is very obviously a pop punk type album, similar to the likes of Blink 182. What makes Small Town Sindrome stand out though is the vocal melodies feel in my opinion a lot more punk influenced than most pop punk that I have heard. 'It Only Gets Worse' was recorded at legendary Little Eden Studio in Asbury Park by Pete Steinkops (The Bouncing Souls) who also features on the track 'Tell Me Why'.
"It was a thrill for us to be able to create our music in the very same studio where one of our favourite bands of all time (as well as a major influence of ours) recorded some of their greatest stuff. Pete was incredible to work with, and we never had to ask twice for him to jump in with a cool guitar riff." (Small Town Sindrome)
Focusing on my two favourites from the album 'Tell Me Why' and 'To Nothing At All' I would say that both songs have this happy vibe and welcoming riffs. 'Tell Me Why' which is probably my overall favourite is really fun and has these crashing chorus's and even a nice little bass solo to round it off. Then 'To Nothing At All' for me was just a track that made me smile and I think that's always a good thing. 'It Only Gets Worse' has a few good songs on it such as 'Tell Me Why', 'To Nothing At All' and 'Too Far Gone' but outside of those I wasn't overally hooked on it. I found that especially in songs like 'Insomnia' the vocals got a bit lost and then in songs like 'Pretending' I just found it a little bit too much to take in. So would I recommend it to you guys? To any die hard pop punk fans, lovers of Blink 182, Green Day, Weezer, this might be for you. I did enjoy listening to it I'm just not sure it will be an album I would revisit personally.
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