Divided Minds – “Mood Swings” (We Are Triumphant)

If there is anything you can never have enough of, it’s pop-punk, especially when it’s good. Enter Divided Minds and their major label debut Mood Swings, a six song clip that delivers everything you’d want out of a pop-punk record – it’s fun, infectious, laced with saccharine and cathartic. These are songs about love, love lost, hopes, dreams, death and broken relationships, and honestly, would you really want it any other way?

Mood Swings is a mixed bag of all things powerpop and pop-punk, but not in a bad way, as the phrase usually connotes; in one minute the band is doing their best A Day To Remember impression (“Don’t Get Too Close”) with a heavy-as-hell mix of scathing vocals and grinding riffs, is all-out powerpop the next, sounding like Panic! At the Disco’s kid brother with punchy guitars, bouncy rhythms and squeaky clean vocals on “Take My Hand” (‘Oh baby, can I take your hand, cause you look like a girl who wants to dance, hold on baby cause you’re not ready for this, and I’ll tell you that I’m not something to miss, and she said, take my hand,’ Sean Collins sings), then transitions to a sound more akin to New Found Glory on “I Forgot You,” speeding things up with faster riffs and quickened drums (‘You fucked me up, when is the next lie, I’ll come over just to say my last goodbyes, call once, call again just to waste my time, it’s true that you’re not on my mind, I forgot you in our memories, at least I wished too’).

From there, “Elizabeth” fills the obligatory acoustic quotient, and closer “Life’s Overrated” breaks out the big guitars as Divided Minds questions their life choices and if chasing their dreams, and living at all for that matter, is even worth it. Pretty freaking heavy shit from a pop-punk album, huh?

Like I said, Mood Swings ticks all the boxes, and on top of everything else, it’s only 18 minutes long, so it’s pretty much a must listen.

Go Download: “Take My Hand”