“No but really, if you put me in a narrow-ass box again I’m gonna step on your face”

This line appears at the end of one of the songs on Relatable Web Content, the new album from Coping Skills. I’ve opened with it because it captures something that otherwise remains implied on the album, a sense of defiant self-belief that feels as much a pep talk as an outpouring by the self-described “post ironic, moderately gay bummer pop” band from Philadelphia.

The album opens with ‘Internet Yardsale’, a short and surreal warm-up before things get serious on ‘We Bury Our Dead Alive’, an emotionally-charged track about losing a loved one.

“look in your room now
you’re not there
worms chew through your bones now
worms eat your hair

i’ve become hypersensitive to every single beat in my chest”

‘Drop Out of College’ is a sloppy pop song filled with deadpan, self-deprecating details of the perils of graduating college, of no prospects and mountainous student loans, “i’ve got $100,000 underneath my bed, piece of paper in exchange for mountains of debt / and i’d mount it on the wall if i could buy a frame, but the interest demands an extra $20 a day”. Follow-up ‘Great, Big’ talks about how our faults can bring us together, how we can help each other through difficult times:

“there’s a great, big hole in my chest
and you crawl, you crawl
inside
when you need, you need, you need
somewhere to hide”

‘I Don’t Feel Good About This’ is a wistful break-up pop song that opens with the great line, “That summer my hair was six different colours / you told me you had found another”, while the caustically ironic ‘4 Days with Me Will Change Your Life (Cool Girl)’ describes the mythical “cool girl” that exists only in Hollywood movies and the heads of men the world over, the manic pixie dream girl who is “effortlessly pretty” and “not ever shy”. The track gives one big finger to large swathes of the male populace, and let’s be honest they’ve had it coming for a long time. As I mentioned at the beginning, the track ends with a break in the sarcasm, small snippets that throw light on the insults and everyday disrespect that are built into the fabric of our society.

“Nothing I think or feel or do or say
needs to be validated by you”

‘Cheap Shots’ is an indie pop song that centres on feelings of isolation, before closer ‘@ me next time’ is about that weird rule of attraction that makes the unobtainable more desirable. Or, as they put it: “aim for the peach / that’s just out of reach / foolishly believe / that it tastes the sweetest”.

Relatable Web Content finds Coping Skills on top form, at turns gentle and abrasive, kind and honest and raging with a righteous belief that people shouldn’t have to put up with a lot of the nonsense they’re subjected to. They are here to reassure you that the old sticks and stones adage has always been absurd, and that people shouldn’t have to wear a polite smile and deaf ears everywhere they go. But it’s also not just angst and anxiety from start to end, it captures perfectly the yo-yoing emotions of the internet age.

You can get Relatable Web Content on cassette or name-your-price download from the Coping Skills Bandcamp page.

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