Philadelphia’s mighty Merit Maker returns this summer season with a highly-anticipated full-length album committed to positivity and hope.
Better Days Ahead features songwriter and bassist Joe Stanton, guitarist Mitchell Layton, and drummer Blaise Rantanen, and promises ten original rock and punk tracks designed to leave you feeling awakened and energised.
Set It Straight is a huge opening track, and a proud reminder of the unique Merit Maker pop-punk sense of grit and positivity united. We get something like joyful pop-punk intertwined with the darker creativity and production traits of P.O.D or N.I.N, a fine fusion of influences, but ultimately a sound that continues to ring out as Merit Maker.
The Stolen Hearts lifts the mood more evocatively and perhaps with a traditional pop-punk flavour, before meandering bass and high-octane tempos ignite the more alternative lower tones and pace of Around Again. In every case, the lyrics captivate – genuinely consuming stories and reflections, which have become, in many ways, the beating heart of all things Merit Maker.
Two Steps Ahead is another creative highlight for its sort of ambient, contemplative mood, and Upsides of Downsides is equally unmistakable, but for entirely different reasons. The band’s playfulness here, and as ever, the distinct bass-work from Stanton, carves out a heavily distorted and mosh-pit ready force of uninhibited expression. Then for Liftoffs, Landings, the true prowess and talent of our drummer excels immensely, another structurally unpredictable alternative track, and a fine segue into the conclusive optimism of Roads Ahead.
A superb playlist of thoughtful, meaningful pop-punk and rock tracks. Merit Maker bring something clearly original, creative and purposeful to the scene, and the tracks are not only a pleasure to escape into at volume, but help shine light on a sense of warmth and belief in better, particularly during such trying and conflicted times as these.
Find Merit Maker on Bandcamp & their Website.
