After a smattering of EPs across over five years, rising punk band The Young Hearts have finally dropped their debut album. According to frontman Craig Lawrence, the plan for this year was to power through the struggles facing so many bands right now and release another EP, but “after realising it could be the final release […], we decided that an album would be the most productive way for us to say everything we wanted to”. Putting out a full-length record in these circumstances isn’t an enviable task, but luckily their pride in their work has paid off with debut album The Modern State.

Right off the bat, opening track ‘Wild And Reckless’ introduces us to the band’s take on the mid-2000s pop-punk so many of us grew up on through a mature, modern lens. The Young Hearts take on a more raw, DIY sort of feel than a lot of their predecessors, reminding me of the music you’d hear in that dive bar from Jennifer’s Body more than anything else. The guitars here in particular really remind me of that era of punk, though, particularly with just how anthemic it was; as soon as you hear the guitars swell in the bridge, you feel like the main character in your own coming-of-age narrative. This concept tracks lyrically too, with lyrics detailing impulsive coping mechanisms and the need to make increasingly wild decisions just to feel alive.