Regression & Regret by Life Looks Good

Attention pop punk oldheads: I have the perfect palate cleanser for all this new MGK bullshit. Regression & Regret by Life Looks Good brings us some fantastic old-school pop punk from Chicago, and right away when you tear into this thing you’ll feel like you’re moshing in a basement with Fall Out Boy in 2003. Just like in those days, each of these songs pave their own distinct trail, avoiding repetition by introducing new riffs, lyrical themes, and melodies in each track. Of course, you've got some of your classic fare here with breakup songs and an extremely guitar-vocal-snare forward sound, but the songwriting on Regression & Regret justifies itself without just appealing to nostalgia.

Digging deeper than these tired themes, Life Looks Good hits on some themes that have more recently played a large role in a lot of our lives. Specifically, this album addresses the intense discomfort that comes along with realizing that the people and places around you are changing in ways you despise. For those of us who live in rapidly gentrifying cities (like the four of us at Outside Noise who live in Nashville), returning to the social scene post-COVID felt like getting repeatedly slapped in the face. All our favorite places were either gone or stolen by New York multi millionaires, and the new folks in town didn’t seem to understand the history behind the rubble they were treading on. The winds of change elevated to a hurricane, uprooting everything we cared for and replacing it with lame parties, unengaging conversation, and crushed optimism. These updated themes inject some young energy into Regression & Regret, which reignites the angsty flame that was first cultivated by the Chicago greats 20 years ago in a new generation of hearts.

-Carrie and Michael