POSTCARD ELBA

Usually when we think of punk we think of the bops that blitzkrieg; the dead sprint to the finish: guitars, bass, drums at full throttle and a vocalist surfing on top of it all in yelps and growls and whoooooaaaaas. But do not overlook the A+ mid-tempo punk chugger, that muscled up melodic rocker more suited to head nodding than getting crucial in the pit. Arm The Poor bring such a top notch number with “Yacht Rock,” the title itself a clever little nod to the slowed down nature of the jam. There’s a vibe of reflective thoughtfulness that runs through this one that would’ve been lost at 200bpm, and while it might be cheap to say that slowed down rock implies a certain maturity, it certainly does have that feel. Punk’s not dead, it’s just occasionally wistful and that’s a-ok with us.