Chin Up, Kid – “Chin Up, Kid” (Standby Records)

It’s only been a few months, but Chin Up, Kid has grown, matured and evolved since they dropped their pop-punk opus Swing With Your Eyes Closed a few short months ago. Their eponymous sophomore record cannot be classified as just pop-punk; it’s clearly so much more.

While they have obviously not forgotten their roots (“Corners,” “Growing Apart,” “Give and Take” and “Eye for An Eye” all offer up bouncy rhythms, crunchy riffs and punchy melodies), Chin Up, Kid is anything but paint-by-numbers (“One Love” is a brooding monster dripping with emotion, “Nothing Left To Lose” is a complex offering that resembles A Thousand Suns era Linkin Park, “Drop Dead Over You” is a banger with Top 40 appeal thanks to some wonderful vocals from Liz Mauritz, closer “When I’m Gone” is about as post-hardcore as post-hardcore gets). Chin Up, Kid continues the turbulent wave of venomous bars from Swing With Your Eyes Closed’s “Your Fault, Not Mine” on “Wasted,” picking themselves up off the mat and stitching together their broken hearts via one of the better written hooks you’ll hear anytime soon (‘I’m holding onto a fucked up past life, been wasting days with you, take me back to a better day where I never had a clue, I left my heart in a city and I swear I never want it back, you think you’re one in a million but I heard you ain’t worth shit’).

If you enjoyed Swing With Your Eyes Closed and thought Chin Up, Kid was merely a pop-punk band, think again.

Go Download: “Wasted”