Album/EP

Knuckle Puck – Losing What We Love (Album Review)

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Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Oct 18, 2023

7 min read

Knuckle Puck – Losing What We Love
Released: October 20th, 2023

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The tone behind Losing What We Love, Knuckle Puck’s fourth album and first for Pure Noise Records is dower. It's a sober look at what happens, at what's left, when you lose the things that you love in life - objects, people, passion. Hence the artwork shows this burnt-out figure, like an after-image of something, someone, that was once there. It’s much more grounded than the raging optimism felt through the Chicagoan's earlier releases. And it’s not a mood that the band forces, either. To its credit, it comes off as natural; a genuine expression of where they’re at in life currently and how they feel about the world. That's the constant across Knuckle Puck's albums: the message and tone behind each full-length always changes. I’m seconds away from saying many things about Losing What We Love, not a lot of it overly nice, but ‘inauthentic’ or ‘contrived’ won't be among such comments.

Losing What We Love is serviceable. It’s mostly inoffensive pop-punk, familiar for the group, is sometimes quite memorable, but is overall an average affair. However, things are noticeably unseasoned here. Like, my dudes, where’s the sauce? Where's the spice!? No one’s asking Knuckle Puck to change genres or become experimental, but what is here is pedestrian.

Someone cooler and smarter than I once said that most albums should be EPs. This is precisely my biggest takeaway from Losing What We Love. Because on album number four? This selected batch of 11 songs arranged in this order doesn't quite cut it. If this were a band’s debut, it’d come off above average and I’d be a little more positive towards it. Losing What We Love exists in a place where it comes across like a band going, “Well, suppose it’s time to make the next album to meet our current record deal.” So much so that I felt neither dread nor excitement when I sat down to listen to it following my first few listens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzPVs21hva4

Losing What We Love is an album about changes and bad luck ('A New Beginning'); losing your foundations and needing to rebuild ('The Tower'); acknowledging one's indifference and indecisions ('October'); harbouring regret over failed relationships ('Worlds Apart'); about seeing through someone's shallow mask (the equally skin-deep 'You & I'); remembering to have compassion and empathy despite how selfish and doomed the world is ('Act Accordingly') and to break away from destructive ways of thinking and to "face the music" (‘Groundhog Day.’) While I "get" the album and fully believe that the band believes in these 11 songs and what they’re saying, barring 'Groundhog Day' and the occasional line from a preferred cut like 'Act Accordingly', very little of it compelled me, unfortunately. Exacerbating this was much of the music.

The LPs full spectrum of sound and songwriting ranges from the seldom slower, mid-tempo rocker ('Fool'), those faster, distorted pop-punk belters (something Knuckle Puck excels at), and the occasional acoustic-tint placed onto both forms (especially on the back end). While that's hardly variety, that also doesn't automatically equal bad. Simple doesn't suddenly mean shit; like tropes, it's all about how you implement it. Except the band doesn't do anything interesting for almost half of the record with said approach.

This kind of writing, and how the album is sequenced, winds up creating an uneven listen, the tracklist oscillating between “pretty decent” and “utterly mid”. For instance, the first song 'A New Beginning'? Eh. 'The Tower'? Very cool! 'October'? Hmm, fine, I guess. 'You & I'? A certain kind of cringey pop-punk that, to reference its painful lyrics, I can't fuck with. But then the title track? One of the record's best moments! You'll know things aren't great here when I say that Side A was the best part of the record. The middle portion does actually contain a neat three-track run (the eponymous song up to 'Act Accordingly' goes off) but then it resorts back to the first half's inconsistent quality until it just sorta ends later on with closer 'Fool.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuyz9JT9hSk

If you know me, you'll know that I love a good opener. Likewise, the second song, 'The Tower' would’ve fit the bill better than the album's actual first cut, 'A New Beginning.' In my mind, 'The Tower' is just such a different beast; bigger and better. It's a genuinely strong pop-punk track for Knuckle Puck, this powerful and immediate song with a good hook and better guitar work than what some may expect from this band. (Something that rings true for much of this new LP, shouts out to guitarists Kevin Maida and Nick Casasanto.) The yelled and feedback-drenched bridge was also a nice touch, though it did feel like the band were instrumentally and vocally building up to something much bigger. Except they drop back to the pre-chorus before one final refrain, feeling like they pulled their punches a little during one particular section on what is, otherwise, a sweet tune.

‘Groundhog Day’ is a typical but highly punchy Knuckle Puck track that flows so well, capturing why this band caught people's attention in the first place. Sonically, in terms of how this song made me feel, I thought I'd gone back in time. The loud-then-quiet songwriting manoeuvre that's used here is as old as the oldest hill, but it's effective, and - for better and worse - it's the most dynamic Losing What We Love gets. The most pressing question, of course: would Bill Murray like it? Probably not, but given how he’s more than likely a grumpy old creep, anything he doesn’t like is more than alright in my books.

'Act Accordingly' has some real bite to it, with jangly distorted guitars and the blunt, opening-up lyrics delivered with heart from vocalist Joe Taylor. This song summons up relatable, evergreen feelings to always keep in mind about how we interact and co-exist with our fellow humans, especially in a world threatened by climate collapse, the increasing rise of fascism, and war. (Like Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, the West Papua conflict, some looming geopolitical quagmire surrounding Taiwan, China and America, probably.) Hey, remember when this was a pop-punk album review? Me too!

Another robust cut I mentioned before, and in one of the record's strongest moments, is its namesake. Look, I’m a simple man: I hear drummer John Siorek's stick count-in after the brief intro and the sped-up riff kicks in, and I’m hooked! This is all to say that this title track, grabbed me hard and didn’t let go. Across its busy guitars, emotive choruses, and resonant vocals - this one's got a lot going for it.

It seems that the band's bread and butter is these types of big-sounding, uptempo pop-punk songs. They can do it very well, though not always. After these real highlights, you're left with the remainder of the album that just feels like elevator music for pop-punk. A few underwhelming pop-punk ditties (like 'Worlds Apart') and one or two middling pop-rock-orientated tracks (as per 'Out Of Touch') drag things down. Again, a shorter EP with a better set of songs, like the four above that I'm way more positive about, could've potentially transformed something fine at best into a new staple for Knuckle Puck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk0S6s0rhEQ

It’s been a great, if busy period for releases within pop-punk and its adjacent territories. Giving any band the unenviable task of following up impressive records from Koyo, who mix melodic hardcore into their 2000s pop-punk style; or Citizen, who came up alongside Knuckle Puck a decade ago, have evolved so well from their roots, and had fan big cossover with today’s subjects. Despite ultimately being just yet another Menzingers, Some of It Was True, while a different form of pop-punk, was hookier and hit me harder due to its more poignant ruminations on ageing and regret. (Before we even include other 2023 highlights like Jeff Rosenstock's latest or No Joy by Spanish Love Songs.) To be clear, music is not a competition, but it also doesn’t exist in a bubble. What this means is that I’m full of multiple similar, superior releases. It’d be like someone who religiously plays Destiny 2 being asked to share their precious time with another live-service FPS. If Losing What We Love was better, maybe this would be a different story, but that's not how it's gone down.

During the 2010s on their come-up, I didn’t love Knuckle Puck like I did others. Not like I did The Wonder Years (GOAT, both now and then) and Transit (miss them; RIP Tim Landers), or even The Story So Far, whose second album still holds up. My relationship with Knuckle Puck has always been: those first few EPs were cool and 2015’s Copacetic LP was rad. While it’s probably not my thing nowadays in 2023, what matters is that at one point, I did like it. And I did see them play some of it in 2016 when they supported Soupy and the gang out here in Australia. 2017’s Shapeshifter and 2020’s rightfully named 20/20 weren’t amazing but also weren't bad either; both had their moments. These releases weren't high-art or anything, but they were good. They were fun! This does have such moments, just less so.

Wall Of Sound champions a great many bands and releases – big and small, Australian or international alike. However, I must say that Losing What We Love is not one such release to be championed. Many of their fans will take to this album like a mid-2010s pop-punk lover to khaki shorts and Tumblr - more power to 'em! It just left me with a lot to be desired. Ironically, listening to this latest Knuckle Puck album at times felt like I was losing interest in this band. Harsh? Maybe, but that’s my truthful sentiment about a record that also offers its own.