Chumped

Teenage Retirement

Chumped’s debut album couldn’t really be called anything else—its 12 songs throb with both the naïve, reckless abandon of youth and the jaded, tired contemplation of old age. What you get when this Brooklyn, New York, four-piece combine the two is a vital examination of the human condition that seems to run the gamut of every experience and emotion we encounter in our short time on this planet. Partly, that’s due to the deliberately sloppy, lo-fi nature of the songs—it almost sounds as if the urgent regret of opener “December Is The Longest Month,” the frantic pop-punk burst of “Novella, Ella, Ella, Eh” and the ragged, jagged, Superchunk-esque “Coffee” were recorded as they were being written. For the most part, vocal duties are handled by frontwoman Anika Pyle, and while the nasal sharpness of her voice can grate, that’s also what helps give these songs the power and urgency they possess. But then again, penultimate track “The Pains Of Being…” is a slow and solemn existential cry which sees a fragile, resigned beauty take over her voice, imbuing it with a tragic and forlorn sense of melancholy. It’s pure pop-punk, and it’s perfect to feel young to and grow old to at the same time.

Anchorless http://www.anchorlessrecords.com

“The Pains Of Being…”