The Breakdown

Music News and Reviews by Aliya Chaudhry

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The Roundup: Part 2

Today was a big release day to cap off an exciting release week. Here are all of the other new releases you may have missed this week. To catch up on the rest of the new music, read Part 1.

Palaye Royale premiered “Hang On To Yourself”

YUNGBLUD released his new EP

Stream the underrated youth here.

WhoHurtYou dropped “Not the One”

SAINTE put out a music video along with a new EP

Here’s the video for “Tough to Love”:

Check out bad summer here.

grandson shared a video for the acoustic version of “Rock Bottom”

The video is structured as a day-in-the-life tour montage, but this isn’t any ordinary day. This is grandson’s visit to DC, which starts with grandson participating in the We The People March, followed by a meet and greet and ending with a show at the 9:30 Club.

If you missed out on any of the new releases, here’s Part 1 to get you up to speed.

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The Roundup: Part 1

October continues to be the Month of Many Releases. As usual, there was too much for one mere post to contain so you can find Part 2 here. Here’s what went down this week:

Dream State unveiled the video for “Twenty Letters”

The band’s debut album, Primrose Path, is out today. Check it out here.

Twenty One Pilots reimagined “The Hype”

And released a vertical video for the track as well.

Waterparks released the video for “Easy to Hate”

And it perfectly encapsulates that old Tumblr adage of “this band ruined my life.”

Jimmy Eat World’s tenth album is out now

Listen to Surviving here. The band also shared a video for “555″:

Want more? Click here for Part 2.

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The Roundup: Part 2

This week was really packed, so here are the rest of the new releases. Read Part 1 here.

The Bloody Beetroots remixed a Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes song

Listen to their take on “Why a Butterfly Can’t Love a Spider” here.

Deaf Havana released a new version of “Saviour”

Here’s the edit. The song’s original version was included on Deaf Havana’s latest album, Rituals, which came out on August 3, 2018. “Saviour” has recently been performing well on German radio.

Waterparks performed an acoustic set for Paste Magazine

They played “Dream Boy,” “High Definition,” “Group Chat,” and “Easy to Hate.”

FEVER 333 also dropped a remix

Check out GOLDHOUSE’s “R333MIX” of “ONE OF US” here.

grandson conducted a social experiment for his new music video

The experiment, outlined in the video for his track “Oh No!!!”, involved grandson strapped to a chair with a number of objects placed before him. Participants were given masks to hide their faces and were allowed three minutes to do whatever they wanted to him. Here’s what happened:

That’s it for this week! Click here for Part 1.

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The Roundup: Part 1

It’s been another big week for music! And today’s a great release day! Let’s take a look at everything that came out. When you’re done, read Part 2 here.

Halsey released a video for “Graveyard”

Dream State shared a new track

Check out “Twenty Letters” here. The song will appear on Primrose Path, which is set for release on October 18.

Green Day released  “Fire, Ready, Aim”

Listen to it here. “Fire, Ready, Aim” is the theme song for Wednesday Night Hockey, as part of a two-year partnership between Green Day and the NHL. The song is off of Green Day’s forthcoming album, Father of All Motherfuckers, out on February 7.

YUNGBLUD released a single featuring Dan Reynolds

This is “original me,” with guest vocals from the Imagine Dragons frontman: 

YUNGBLUD’s EP, Hope for the Underrated Youth, featuring this song, will be released on October 18, after being pushed back from its initial release date, October 11.

PVRIS performed a stripped-back set for VEVO

Here’s “Hallucinations”:

And you can watch “Death of Me” here.

They also announced the title and tracklisting of their upcoming EP, which includes both of these songs along with three new tracks. The Hallucinations EP will come out on October 25.

State Champs, Simple Plan and We The Kings dropped a collaborative song ahead of their tour

Move over “Don’t Call Me Angel,” here’s “Where I Belong”.

Our Last Night premiered a new song with a music video

Watch “Let Light Overcome the Darkness” below:

The Wombats remixed Dreamers’ “Die Happy”

Check it out here.

Simple Creatures dropped their second EP

After premiering “One Little Lie” on Sunday, the rest of Everything Opposite came out today. Give it a spin here! 

Along with the EP, the band also shared a video for their single, “Thanks, I Hate It”:

Babymetal released METAL GALAXY

Listen to their new album here.

And Waterparks’ FANDOM is finally out!

#STREAMFANDOM here.

But that’s not all. Check out the rest of the releases on Part 2.

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The Roundup

Happy Halloween Month! Here’s all of the exciting new music from this week:

Halsey released “clementine”

The video features Halsey and her brother, Sevian Frangipane, doing a choreographed dance. Interestingly, the video identifies her as Ashley Frangipane.

Panic! at the Disco and Weezer will both feature on the Frozen 2 soundtrack

Both bands, along with Kacey Musgraves, will deliver their own versions of songs from the movie to play during the end credits. Panic! is performing “Into the Unknown” while Weezer takes on “Lost in the Woods” and Kacey Musgraves contributes a version of “All is Found”.  The soundtrack will come out on November 15 and the movie will premiere on November 22.

Chase Atlantic revealed a video for “TOO LATE”

Don Broco premiered a lyric video for the Punk Goes Acoustic version of “Come Out to LA”

Punk Goes Acoustic, Vol. 3 came out on July 26.

Chapel dropped their first song in almost 2 years

Issues released their third album

Listen to Beautiful Oblivion here.

Bayside’s Interrobang is out today

Check it out here.

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The Roundup: Part 2

Here’s Part 2! Check out Part 1 to catch up with the rest of the music news from this week!

Bastille dropped a new video and a remix

The band revealed a bizarre video for “Bad Decisions” on Wednesday:

And a remix of “Million Pieces” by M-22 on Friday.

Waterparks released “High Definition”

Wednesday was a big day. Waterparks released another single from FANDOM, along with an accompanying video, also directed by frontman Awsten Knight.

BABYMETAL shared another song from METAL GALAXY

This is “Shanti Shanti Shanti”:

METAL GALAXY is out on October 11.

We Came As Romans released 2 songs in honor of late singer Kyle Pavone

Here’s “Carry the Weight”:

And you can listen to “From the First Note” here. 

These are the first songs We Came As Romans have released since Pavone’s death last year.

“In order to be genuine to our fans and ourselves, we had to write about what we dealt with losing him,” said guitarist Joshua Moore. “At the same time, this isn’t just a bunch of songs soaking in depression. We want to celebrate what we built.”

The band has decided not to replace Pavone by adding another singer. “There was no way we were getting another singer to come in,” Moore said. “Based on the thought process, that was a lyrical inspiration for ‘From The First Note.’ We’re allowed to be angry and upset, but we’re also allowed to be happy we had those memories.”

Issues premiered new single “Flexin”

This is the third single from upcoming album Beautiful Oblivion. 

Of Mice & Men released their new album

Stream EARTHANDSKY here.

nothing, nowhere. and Travis Barker’s EP is out now

Check out BLOODLUST here.

Foo Fighters surprised-dropped an EP

Listen to 01070725 here.

And it’s been 14 years since Fever came out

Panic! at the Disco’s first album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, turned 14 on Friday!

To read about the rest of the new releases and more, read Part 1 of this week’s round up here.

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The Roundup: Part 1

Here’s all of the important music news you may have missed this week! Once again, there’s too much new music out, so after you read this, check out Part 2 here.

Jimmy Eat World released “All The Way (Stay)”

Along with “All The Way (Stay),” Jimmy Eat World released a re-recorded version of their 2018 single, “Love Never”. They also announced that their tenth album, Surviving, will come out on October 18.

YUNGBLUD unveiled a video for “Hope for the Underrated Youth”

He also revealed that his next EP, Underrated Youth, will come out on October 11.

All Time Low confirmed It’s Still Nothing Personal

All Time Low finally announced the release date of the re-recorded version of Nothing Personal, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. The re-recorded album, titled It’s Still Nothing Personal: A Ten Year Tribute, and documentary about the re-release will drop on November 8. 

The band also announced shows where they will be playing the album in full in December. Initially, the tour dates consisted of one stop each in Chicago, Los Angeles and Sayreville, New Jersey. However, as sales opened up on Friday and dates began to sell out quickly, more dates were added, with the resulting 8-date-tour selling out by the end of the day.

State Champs covered Matchbox Twenty’s “Real World”

Watch the video below:

This song is off of the second volume of Hopeless Records’ cover compilation Songs That Saved My Life, set for release on November 8. Like the first installment, the compilation, which benefits mental health and suicide awareness organizations, features bands covering songs that hold particular meaning to them. The proceeds from the upcoming volume will go to Crisis Text Line, Hope For The Day, The Trevor Project, and To Write Love On Her Arms. The first volume came out on November 9, 2018.

The full tracklist is below:

State Champs - “Real World” (Matchbox Twenty) Silverstein - “Disarm” (The Smashing Pumpkins) With Confidence - “Drops of Jupiter” (Train) This Wild Life - “Wicked Game” (Chris Isaak) Doll Skin - “Shake It Out” (Florence + the Machine) The Frights - “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” (Modest Mouse) Mayday Parade - “New Years Project” (Further Seems Forever) The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - “Trust” (Thrice) Sharptooth - “Die For the Government” (Anti-Flag) Trash Boat - “Given Up” (Linkin Park)

Love Fame Tragedy released “Pills”

This is the final song to be released off of the band’s first EP, I Don’t Like Playing the Victim But I’m Really Good At It. Stream the full EP here.

But wait, there’s more! Read Part 2 here.

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The Wombats - “Turn”

“Turn” is a masterpiece of lyricism, combining striking metaphors, hyper-specific details and honest admissions. There are too many clever lines to list off from, “You could give an aspirin the headache of its life” to, “Watering plastic plants in the hope that they'll grow,” but the song’s strongest moments are when an intricate line is abruptly followed by a direct one. These lyrics are buoyed up by steady rock guitars, echoing drums, and synths which are at times airy and subtle and at others distinct and surprising. Sonically, the verses feel emptier while the chorus sounds filled-out and forceful. “Turn’s” melody manages to be tense with anticipation, heartbreakingly sad and somehow still tinged with joy. The chorus feels triumphant and the whole song builds to an earnest, booming bridge at the end, almost as a moment of release. “Turn” perfectly captures the bittersweet feeling it describes – nostalgia.

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The Roundup

It’s another New Music Friday and it can be hard keeping track of all the new releases. Here’s what you need to know:

Stand Atlantic dropped “Hate Me (Sometimes)”

FEVER 333 posted a video for “ANIMAL”

Green Day premiered the video for “Father of All...”

Mayday Parade released Sunnyland B-Sides

The collection features "Turn My Back,” a B-side from their most recent album, Sunnyland, and an acoustic version of “It’s Hard To Be Religious When Certain People Are Never Incinerated By Bolts Of Lightning.”

Our Last Night shared “The Beaten Path”

Bayside announced their new album

Interrobang is out on October 4. Bayside also unveiled the title track for the album with a music video.

blink-182′s new album is out now

Stream NINE here.

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Halsey - “Graveyard”

In “Graveyard,” a clapping riff loops throughout the song, accented by acoustic guitar plucking and hazy synths. The pre-chorus builds momentum and suspense, but it’s all yanked out from underneath you at the start of the chorus, as the melody slows down and it’s just Halsey’s voice and subtly swelling synths. Another abrupt shift happens in the middle of the chorus, when the song goes completely silent for moment, before the percussion, vocals and synths start up again in energetic unison. The stripped-back feel allows Halsey’s unique voice to shine through, giving her a chance to use her higher register. The dreamy quality of the music is contrasted against the nightmarish lyrics. Halsey uses a graveyard as a metaphor for the dark places a relationship can lead, and hones in on her willingness to go there. The metaphor is elaborated throughout the song, but the verses are vivid with their own chilling details and images. “When the hand you wanna hold is a weapon and/You're nothin' but skin,” Halsey sings. “Graveyard” may be a softer and lighter song for Halsey, but it’s just as powerful as the riot-anthem “Nightmare,” and possibly even more haunting.

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Andy Black - “Westwood Road”

Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack released this song as the lead single for his second solo album, The Ghost of Ohio. Utterly danceable and comically spooky, the song juxtaposes dark lyrics against a fun melody. The juxtaposition, Biersack explains, has to do with the fact that the song is about a difficult period in his life, where he struggled with drinking in particular, but also reflects his distance from that time and that he feels happy to be past that. Direct and concise lyrics allow the melody its simple but effective rhythm, but the song as a whole is bolstered by the bouncing beat of the percussion. The bass line veers from sinister to playful and contrasts with the lighter vocals in the verses, while the guitars add a bright flair. In the chorus, Black combines a confident yet slightly dismal melody with triumphant gang vocals, lively guitar grooves and ecstatic drumming, achieving a sense of regret. “Westwood Road” is perfect blend of tones and styles – including a tinkling piano riff at the end of the chorus and some Halloween-ish sound effects. This is goth-pop at its finest.

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Waterparks - “[Reboot]”

If not for “Turbulent”, this single would have felt like it came out of left field. The song is a chilling blend of breakbeats, vocal effects, synths, and pseudo-rapping – not what you’d typically expect from a pop-rock band, but elements that have been explored in previous Waterparks songs. Lyrically, “[Reboot]” contains brilliant moments like, “now you boxed me out/I'm out the ring/But the only ring I want/Is the ring around your finger,” but vocalist Awsten Knight’s delivery drives the song. He gives the pre-chorus its astoundingly quick tempo and punchy rhythm. In the chorus, Knight’s voice is modified and layered, so we get a deeper monotonous, almost apathetic, singing over higher-pitched, dynamic emotive harmonies. The impact is that the vocals sound cool and collected, but still hint at the visceral emotions behind the song, as if the vocalist is trying to make it seem like he’s over the heartbreak described, but his voice betrays him. This is what makes the song feel so dark and anguished. The delicate tension involved in concealing emotions and trying to distance yourself from heartbreak is no easy feat to pull off sonically.  But “[Reboot]” achieves it, proving once again that Waterparks is adept at using electronic elements in the best way possible.

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The Roundup

It’s been a Hella Mega week for rock music. Here are the highlights:

Green Day announced a new album and premiered the title track

After some cryptic teasing and strange merch deliveries over the weekend, Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer announced they’re all going on the worldwide Hella Mega Tour together next year, with The Interrupters as support. (Listen to a playlist the bands put together for the tour here.) 

“Green Day wanted to do a stadium tour,” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong told Billboard, “We were thinking of a throwback to Monsters of Rock, which would have Van Halen, Metallica, Scorpions, all that. We were like, “Who’s that in our era?”

“The world is super hip-hop- and Instagram-[oriented], and I think this is counterprogramming to all of that,” said Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz in the same Billboard interview.

Along with officially announcing the Hella Mega Tour on Tuesday, all three bands also shared that they will be releasing new albums ahead of the tour and posted new songs from those albums.

Green Day’s forthcoming album, Father of All Motherfuckers, is slated to come out on February 7, 2020. Here’s the title track:

Fall Out Boy also shared a new single

“Dear Future Self (Hands Up)” will appear on Fall Out Boy’s latest greatest hits compilation, Believers Never Die - Volume 2, out on November 15, almost exactly a decade after the first volume came out.

Weezer released the first song from Van Weezer

Here’s “The End of the Game”:

Weezer’s riff-heavy, metal-inspired Van Weezer is currently due for release on May 15, 2020, but the band has teased that they may release it sooner.

Waterparks dropped “[Reboot]”

This is the fourth track Waterparks have released from their forthcoming album, FANDOM. 

Halsey put out “Graveyard”

Halsey gave the track its live debut at Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty fashion show on Tuesday night. A recording of the show will be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video starting September 20. 

Halsey also announced her next album, Manic, out on January 17, 2020. She painted the album artwork during a livestream on Thursday and a time-lapse video of that footage serves at the visual for “Graveyard.” 

The Faim’s State of Mind is out now

After releasing “Beautiful Drama” earlier this week, The Faim dropped their first full-length album today. Stream it here.

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Love Fame Tragedy – “My Cheating Heart”

“My Cheating Heart” is the debut single from The Wombats frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy’s side project (which features some high-profile friends). The track has a kind of understated genius. “My Cheating Heart” has a lot of subtle twists and unexpected musical turns – from the quick meter of the pre-chorus to the lofty chorus melody. Murph’s precise delivery is embellished by Maddi Waterhouse’s backing vocals and harmonies, which give the song some of its surprise and warmth. The fuzzy guitars set the song apart from other pop-rock tracks. Not only are all of the musical elements cohesive, but the lyrics are as well, in the way the lines circle back to a specific image. “Defibrillate my credit cards,” Murph sings at the top of the second verse. He closes the verse with, “I decline the truth.” The song is about Californian culture’s love of status and overindulgence and the lyrics are bravely direct, with lines like, “Is it such an evil thing/Just to want it all/Yeah, yeah I want it all.” Murph said that with Love Fame Tragedy he didn’t want to spend too much time obsessing over each song, but even after taking a more relaxed approach to songwriting, every piece of “My Cheating Heart” still feels carefully contained and calibrated.

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Don Broco – “ACTION” (feat. Tyler Carter, Taka Moriuchi, Tilian Pearson, and Caleb Shomo)

“ACTION” is full of more twists than any Don Broco song that came before it, and that’s saying something. The twists this time come courtesy of not one, not two, but four guest vocalists. For a band that already has two dynamic vocalists, that’s a lot of vocal talent and range to pack into one song, but it’s all tied together seamlessly by the song’s bold rhythm. Nothing from the chanting to the screaming to the NSYNC reference feels out of place on this track. The song is a wake-up call to action, urging people to live their lives, instead of spending too much time online. “ACTION” is truly aggressive, but the anger is broken up by lighter moments with soaring clean vocals and pared-back instrumentation. That push and pull is what gives “ACTION” its captivating tension and makes it worth playing on repeat.

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The Roundup (Sept. 6)

Lots of surprises this Friday! Here’s your guide to all of the new music out this week.

ROAM’s Smile Wide came out today

Stream it here. ROAM also released a music video for “Turn” on Thursday.

Sleeping with Sirens released their new album

How It Feels to Be Lost is out now, along with a video for the title track.

blink-182 dropped another song from their upcoming album, NINE

Here’s “I Really Wish I Hated You”:

Of Mice and Men shared “Taste of Regret”

Their forthcoming album, EARTHANDSKY, is out on September 27.

Don Broco had an ACTION-packed Friday

With no promotion, (other than a vague Instagram post from frontman Rob Damiani the day before) Don Broco surprised fans with a new single, “ACTION” at midnight on Friday. They posted two versions: an original version recorded with just the band and one featuring guest appearances from Tilian Pearson of Dance Gavin Dance, Caleb Shomo of Beartooth. Tyler Carter of Issues and Taka Moriuchi of ONE OK ROCK.

They released the music video for the track early the following morning, which features Pearson and Carter. All of the guest vocalists and band members appear in the video in action figure form.

“We’re all gonna die at some point so get the fuck up and do something with your day/week/life,” Damiani said. “That’s what ‘Action’ is about and it’s been rad linking up with a load of our mates on it. There’s not nearly enough collabs going on right now in rock music so we’re bringing back the vibes with help from the absolute dudes Taka, Caleb, Tyler and Tilian.”

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Bastille - “Doom Days”

“Doom Days” is the title track from Bastille’s latest album, which chronicles a night out during the apocalypse. In interviews, the band has described the song as summarizing the real-world fears a night of partying is supposed to distract from. Vocalist Dan Smith originally wrote 50 verses for this song but the final version clocks in at just under two-and-a-half minutes. “Doom Days” is a succinct list of horrors of the modern era: the overwhelming access to information, issues relating to social media and climate change denial, to name a few. The entire song is exceptionally written, with lines like, “Think I’m addicted to my phone/My scrolling horror show/I'm live-streaming the final days of Rome.” It takes a fast tempo to pack all of that into a song, and it propels the track and its enthralling melody forward. The haunting vocals are accented by a variety of sounds from strings to horns to synths to percussion, a product of the successful genre-blending and expert programming Bastille is known for. “Doom Days” builds tension to a triumphant and ecstatic final verse which resolves to disconnect from the outside world and escape into the night.