Golden Mixtape

The past week there’s been a lot of indie in my inbox. The records spanned a prairie that consisted of adults realizing that they weren’t where they wanted to be and were confused and upset by the matter. The only thing that’s different about the latest album in my digital hands is the backdrop. Handguns offers that same mentality, but with a heavy dose of pop punk to tell their tales of their past, present and future states of anguish with their album Angst.

With the recent reports of “Knock Knock bandits” in LA, “Porch Light” scared me because I thought someone was at the door. All I could think was, please don’t take my beloved TV. As for the rest of the record, it played like a familiar friend. Each song was being sung along to before I realized my mouth was moving. Which when you have love songs like “Stay With Me” or the cutie pie, Taylor Swift like “Still Running Away,” it’s easy to do.

That’s enough with the lovey dovey though, the best parts of Angst were, well, the angst. “Early Retirement” is every adult stuck in a job they hate (so 99%); “…trying to get fired so I don’t have to quit.” “The War At Home” is the pinnacle song of the record though. You listen to every word and try and say that you didn’t have at least one moment like that when you were younger. That time in place where every emotion you’ve ever felt formed a tornado in-between your ears and screaming wasn’t enough? Or in the case of Handguns, punching holes in walls wasn’t enough…Oh, that was just this week? Well then…

Besides love and anger, there was this since of friendship that came through as well. I have to point out “Long October” for it paying homage to Counting Crows not only in the song, but the title as well. Then there’s “Fade Away,” a song that had this sense of comradery, much like with New Found Glory’s “Ballad for the Lost Romantics.”

When it comes to music being put out by people in their 20’s…it’s all the same when it comes to the message. The only difference is the packaging. So it just depends on if you like your music served on an indie plate, or a pop punk platter. So if you’re a fan of bands like With The Punches and The Wonder Years, you’ll enjoy Handguns’ Angst, out now on Pure Noise Records.