On their first album since 2018 and since Matt Skiba departed Blink 182, Alkaline have roared back to life. With Derek Grant making his final appearance before his ’23 departure, the band have come back with a tight 35-minute set of direct punk. I was never a huge fan of the band until the last few records so they were on my radar with this disc. 
“Bad Time” is a great, great song that should be a smash but so far hasn’t reached those heights. Opening track “Hot for Preacher” is a massive singalong that perks the ears up immediately. “Versions of You” is another jam that just sounds great. The production is clear and crisp and makes the band come alive over 25 years into their career, which isn’t easy to do with punk these days. (cough cough, Green Day, cough cough). The background vocals throughout the disc are just amazing and really help the songs.
The title track is another punch in the face; the amount of great tracks on this record is astonishing to hear and if you’re a longtime Alkaline fan, then this will be a wonderful thing to behold. “Break” is a full-on assault, one of the faster songs here and it shows. Really good track and shows that after all this time, the band still have what it takes to be an important punk band.
While I wish the last two songs were stronger, this is not a bad record at all. It’s too early to tell but it might be one of the best punk records of the year. Maybe having Tom come back to Blink was good for both parties. It allowed Tom and Blink to create a record that, while good, was overloaded with too many writers. Meanwhile, Matt came back to his true band where the three guys wrote the whole record on their own, showing they haven’t had to change hardly anything about their sound.