Release Of The Week: PVMNTS' Better Days

'While everyone is slowing down my head is in the fast lane,' yells bassist Freddy Ramirez during Another Monday. These words about anxiety attacks also apply well to the Los Angeles pop-punks' own trajectory. Since forming in 2016, PVMNTS - pronounced 'Pavements - have already toured the UK, garnered fans around the world and landed coveted festival slots at Slam Dunk and Warped Tour. All on the back of one demo.

Hype? Perhaps, but this debut EP justifies the attention. While many first efforts from earnest young pop-punks merely emulate influences like blink-182 and New Found Glory, PVMNTS display a thorough understanding of the dynamic flourishes that make those bands great.

Case in point, the daydreaming guitars exiting Chemical Trails provide a soft landing to the crashing Travis Barker-like rhythms that precede them. Elsewhere, the vocal interplay between Freddy's silken tones and guitarist Tyler Posey's sneer injects sparky energy into Hit The Ground. So much so, that when the buzzsaw riffs twist sideways into a 'woah oh' section, it somehow catches you off guard, even though this is a genre where you completely expect them.

Lyrically, Better Days is also impressively mature (no dick jokes here, sorry). While Standing (On My Own Two Feet) is propelled by earworm hooks, Tyler addresses the wave of confusion following his mother's passing. 'I'm not sad, I'm not numb, I'm not anything at all,' he confides, 'But I definitely feel a change.' Meanwhile, the layered production by Kyle Black (State Champs, All Time Low) ensures that when this trio do jump into a legless chorus with both feet, they burst wide open like a Fourth of July firework display.

Better Days proves that, when done well, pop-punk can still be chock-full of thrills and spills, even in a genre where all the tricks seem to be known. And with this snappy EP, PVMNTS now have a solid foundation to build on that sounds anything but pedestrian.

Words: James Mackinnon

Better Days is out now and available to stream below. More info here.