Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, The

Solid modern punk record. Packed with anthems about youth, love, and vitality. Takes cues from The Replacements as well as many current alternative and punk rock bands on Run For Cover. Lots of interesting guitarwork and passionate vocal delivery. Not really reinventing the wheel but still has some good moments.

RIYL: The Replacements, Run For Cover Records, early Brand New, Balance and Composure
Favorites: 2 (FCC), 3, 5 (FCC), 8, 9, 10
FCC: 1, 2, 4, 5

1. (2:15) Throwaways - FCC: f***. Noisy pop punk, lyrics about youth and leaving home. New guitar variation comes in ~1:00.
**2. (3:19) Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas - FCC: f***. Pretty, chiming guitars. Anthemic. Lyrics about love and making mistakes.
*3. (2:29) Noisy Heaven - Noisy guitars. Aggressive yet somewhat dreamy guitars. Propulsive drumming. Quieter passage ~1:17 with repetitive strumming guitar, before kicking back into the aggression. Raw.
4. (2:38) Ride the Wild Haze - FCC: f***. Very aggressive. Takes cues from the angrier sides of pop punk. Lyrics about youth and vitality, in the “wild haze”.
*5. (2:34) Too Late to Die Young - FCC: f***. Acoustic. Nice contrast between the raw roughness of the vocals and the delicacy of the keyboards, strings, and gently strummed guitars.
6. (2:34) I Break Guitars - Sort of generic pop punk track about being alright. Skippable.
7. (2:30) Young & Alive - Sounds more unique than the rest of the majority of songs here that fit within a certain Run For Cover punk aesthetic. Visceral emotions about the vitality of youth, like much of the record conveys. Ends with repeated screaming about being young and alive.
**8. (2:43) Porno Love - Personal favorite on the album. Really pretty, chiming guitar that cuts deep through the sound. Propulsive drumming. Some of the best lyrics on the album, contain some kind of narrative and recollection of memories rather than merely dealing with youth’s vitality. Nice, dark bassline that manifests itself whenever the vocalist sings “heaven”.
*9. (2:57) Hard Luck Kid - Another anthem, has some good variations with softer and louder passages and different guitar lines. Super driving guitar outro.
*10. (2:57) Dirty Lights - Anthem. More optimistic than a lot of the other anthems which contain driving instrumentation but melancholy lyrics. Prominent guitar and not as much distortion as in other songs. Great closer.