punk this week: sweeping promises, navaja, credit card + 15 more
You’ve got to listen to these new records by Headcheese, the Shooters, and Calice, too. Meet some new favorite bands.
Hey, it’s Punk This Week, see/saw’s punk and rock'n'roll recommendations column. The new Sweeping Promises album has arrived this week, and so has the debut from Credit Card. Add to those some absolutely essential new records by Navaja, Headcheese, the Shooters, and Calice for an unbelievable week of new records.
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see/saw is a love letter to punk music and artists. Every week, these columns attempt to scratch the surface of what’s most exciting in this world right now, but as enthusiastic as I can get with these long columns, there’s so many other places out there that are covering the best stuff—magazines, blogs, radio shows, podcasts, zines, etc. It’s actively a gnarly era for punk writing and punk labor, and as platforms continue to disappear, it’s clear that all we can do is lift each other up.
If you’ve got the means, consider spending a little money on somebody’s passion project. It doesn’t have to be mine. Have a nice weekend.
Sweeping Promises: You Say I Romanticize [Sub Pop]
Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug literally live in the studio, and as meticulous and self-described songwriting and recording obsessives, they described that dynamic as “adversarial.” Unfortunately for the Lawrence duo, that hard work has paid off immensely. Their excellent 2023 album Good Living Is Coming for You showcased their hook-writing chops and Mondal’s out of this world vocals, but their follow-up You Say I Romanticize takes their already significant abilities to the next level.
Schnug’s guitar hooks are stickier, their songwriting sharper, the hits harder. Mondal comes in with so much bite on “Shooting Shadows,” though she doesn’t spend the entire album snarling. It’s always been true of Sweeping Promises—plus their prior bands Mini Dresses, Silkies, and Dee-Parts—that Mondal is an unbelievable vocalist. She’s classically trained, harmonizing like a star choir student and belting like an athlete throwing her entire body into the follow-through. She’s earned all those comparisons to the B-52’s; she’s got those brain massaging harmonies bursting from these songs where every ounce of melodic vibrance and punk rock punch has been considered down to the last detail.
“Write Lightly” is where the album gets its title—a song about the agonies of writing, measuring your expression against your actual life, and the notion that anybody’s thinking nearly this critically about the work. As the album closes, Mondal’s voice seems to drift above the track like voices in her own head. “You say I romanticize” is a bar from an exceptional punk song about overthinking it, and by all accounts, this album is the result of extensive consideration. Where some artists work best by working fast, these two clearly thrive when they’re neck deep in the details. Very clearly.
