Punk and pop are no strangers to each other. During the mid-2000s, thousands of pop-punk bands arose from their respective towns, bringing tales of their friends, and growing up to influence their music. However, in the underground, some bands refused to label themselves with this new “ramen-fueled” attitude towards life. Enter Bomb the Music Industry and Fake Problems, whose frontmans were both of a poppy-punk attitude.

Where most punk bands at the time sang about getting laid and eating pizza with buddies at the gas station off of Hella Stoked Street, brah, Bomb the Music Industry’s and Fake Problems’ frontmen Jeff Rosenstock and Chris Farren sang sad and earnest songs. Somewhere along the way, these two musical juggernauts got together and decided to put their emotionally inclined ideas to something decidedly less punk and decidedly more pop. This project, known as Antarctigo Vespucci, released the album Soulmate Stuff and an EP I’m So Tethered in 2014, but their 2015 release Leavin’ La Vida Loca is the duo’s strongest release so far.

Antarctigo Vespucci’s sound can generally and naturally be described as an emotionally charged power-pop band with heavy punk influences. They’ve got the cleanliness expected from pop, with the raw energy and emotion found in punk music. What really makes this album great is the lyrics of the songs. They’re sad, powerful, relatable and some of the best lyrics written this year, in my opinion.

The album’s opener “2 Days” is an excellent, albeit slow, set up of things to come. Rosenstock and Farren’s harmonies are probably most prominent on this track, as the song is a quick acoustic song. The following song, the lead single, is “Impossible to Place”. Though I don’t think that the song is the strongest on the album, it’s definitely single material. The beat is fun and the general tone of the song reminds me of early Weezer, particularly with the catchiness of the chorus. It’ll stay stuck in your head for days, as will the rest of this album. \

My favorite on the album “Losing My Mind” is a slow song that sounds like The Cure had a kid with those other two bands that formed this band. “Hooray for Me” is a sarcastic jam that will have your head bobbing and your feet tapping. “VI” is a short interlude between songs, leading into the even MORE sarcastic sounding “Living in Hell”. Something about the saccharine 60’s-style verses makes it feel like a joke, though the chorus is a different story. “No Bad Memories” feels like my official song of the summer.

It’s followed by the anti-summer song, “Crashing Waves”. “Crashing Waves” feels like it had a good idea, but doesn’t really hold up to the rest of the album. I do like it more than “Save Me From Myself”, if just for the synth-break. The album closes with “I See Failure”, a rather dark and sad note to leave an album off of. The way that “I See Failure” builds up and transforms as the song goes turns the entire album into a completely different beast. It retroactively makes the entire album feel even better than it already was.

Overall, I think that Leavin’ La Vida Loca is a contender for album of the year. The only thing I think might beat it is one half of the band’s solo effort, We Cool? released back in March. The entire album is smart, well written, catchy, exciting, and well worth your time.