Tracklisting:

Nectar – Slouch
Moon Racer – New Crush
Haley Heynderickx – The Bug Collector
M. Grig – Millpond Way
Lisa/Liza – Vanity Plate
Tancred – Reviews
Cloud – Disenchanted
Wellness – Fake Flowers
Kraków Loves Adana – Heather
Spartan Jet-Plex – Alright
Clara Marie – Bike or Boat
Nate Terepka – Tempelhof
Never Betters – Pictures
The By Gods – Wait Up
Talk, Tired Thanatoid – I Hit a Car
FRANKIIE – Glory Me
Queen of Jeans – U R My Guy
Grievances – Bliss
Painted Forest – Witness
Pema – Depend
VedeTT – It Seems To Be Natural
Boys – End of Time
Sun June – Young
Buck Meek – Cannonball
Young Jesus – Storm

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Never Betters kick off the release with the loud and loose ‘Pictures’, a track that throws caution to the wind in favour of cathartic release. The instrumentation rises into noisy spikes, leaving April Romano to scream and shout her vocals behind the tumult. As such, the lyrics are not exactly clear, though the mood and attitude of the track is made obvious through the sheer energy on show.

‘Frustrating Song’ takes a darker, meaner vibe, the guitars squealing ominously behind the crunching drums, while the sharply succinct ‘Better Person’ clocks in at just over a minute of speedy punk. The final Never Betters track, ‘Suffer’, slows the tempo initially, leading to a smouldering energy that soon sparks into life once more. Again the drums and guitars conspire to grab you by the ears and speed off, and Romano’s desperate plea of “I want to you suffer” gets caught up in the squall.

The Grievances side is no less lively, with opening ‘Winona’ emerging from a noisy fuzz into a bona fide pop-punk hit. ‘Bliss’ begins with a whirlwind of sound, the drums eventually kicking in to set the song on a straight track. The vocals are delivered with a joyous and carefree sense of abandon, yelped and yelled in competition with the pounding drums.

Despite it’s sparkling atmosphere, ‘Vampires’ is no less boisterous, channelling the likes of Beach Fossils in its shout-along spirit, before closer ‘Speak Easy’ grabs you one final time. Playing like a ghost train with its brake cut, the track is a discombobulating rush through a series of noisy sections, the drums hammering and feedback screaming and guitars veering from one moment to the next, all topped off with the raucous vocals.

Guns + Roses’ Roses is out now and you can get it digitally from the Never Betters Bandcamp page, or on vinyl from Grooves Records Records.

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