Nim

the new Ten Foot Pole album Winning that came out a couple of months ago is really solid. I wasnt huge on the stuff they did since the reunion, so i kinda stopped paying attention (hence why I only listened to it now), but there's lots of really good stuff on there. I feel like lots of people write off anything TFP did aside from Swill and Rev with Scott on vocals, but I always really liked most of what they did since Dennis took over until they stopped doing stuff in the mid 2000s. However, I didn't listen to the first proper comeback album Escalating Quickly much cause I didnt like it at all, what I remember from it was bland at best and tacky and annoying at worst, but Winning is just cool fast melodic punk rock with lots of catchy hooks and some neat ideas, am pleasantly surprised. I still think that pretty much any album they made before 2005 is better than this, but it's very enjoyable, feels like they actually came into this with ideas and not just trying to milk a legacy band name. The weaker points for me are tracks like Bogeyman, I'm No Good at Sharing or Fuck around and find out, I think these lean a bit too hard into this really sugary sweet bouncy sound that made me hate Don't Be a Dick on the previous album so much (though neither of these are as egregious), but I really enjoy the tracks where they get a little darker and heavier like Take Back Your Voice, Short Fuse, and the opener Can We Stop Trying to Win?, the latter I think especially is a good showcase of the finesse the band has with connecting different sections and varying sonic textures at a rapid pace