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A lot has changed for the Orlando, Florida pop-punks since their last album. Guitarist Téa Campbell decided to leave the band to pursue other ventures, and following a wave of label mergers and corporate restructuring, the group parted ways with Fueled By Ramen. Given that they were suddenly down a key songwriter and operating as a newly independent duo, I was curious to hear how all of this would influence their sound going forward. Would they pivot back to the Disney Channel easycore of their Model Citizen EP, a project I thought breathed a bit of fresh air into the formulaic genre? Or would they stay on the straightforward, radio-friendly pop-punk trajectory of their last full-length, which I admittedly found rather forgettable? Either way, I was rooting for them as they bring an intersectional and underrepresented voice to an otherwise very white, heavily male-dominated genre.
The band doesn't make you wait long to find out the answer. Just a few seconds into the opening track, Dead to Me, the arrival of chugged, open-string riffs reveals that we are securely back in easycore territory. Yet, that thrilling sense of reunion is ultimately short-lived, as Worried Sick quickly settles into the clichéd tropes that make it hard to take this genre seriously. Producer Mike Green, who steps in as a co-writer here, provides guitar riffs that sadly lack any real imagination or bounce. Instead of the spirited and creative riffs that someone like Campbell would be proud to perform night after night, the origin of these riffs feel like they come from a divested hired hand. Many songwriting elements also come across as prescribed rather than natural. Spread out through the EP are cheesy mosh callouts followed by quota-filling breakdowns, and there's even an emotional acoustic ballad that never fails to suck all the energy and momentum out of the room.
The band's vocal fingerprint is also compromised. Edith Victoria's uncharacteristically refined vocal style, at least by pop-punk standards, has unfortunately regressed into a forced, nasally inflection that sounds almost identical to Pierce the Veil's Vic Fuentes; a notoriously polarizing vocal personality. To add further insult to injury, the lyrics leave much to be desired. The themes revolve around eroding relationships that leave one party feeling duped and discarded; fairly universal experiences. However, Victoria's point of view comes across quite immature and vindictive. Whether it's wishing death upon someone to ease their own mind (Dead to Me), dealing with rejection by embracing all their perceived negative qualities (Straight Up (Needy)), or hoping that someone gets their just deserts (Karma), this EP is a 'what not to do' in coping strategies and demonstrating growth. Especially given that Victoria's medium of choice is vague posting; ineffectively painting this other party as a villain worthy of so much scorn.
Worried Sick should have been a celebration of Meet Me @ The Altar's newfound independence, an opportunity to lean into the unique qualities that made them a fun discovery in the first place. Instead, they have spared no expense emulating the generic easycore blueprint to a fault. If you are an easycore die-hard, the punchy production, detuned guitars, and double bass licks might be just enough to be rewarded a pass. If not there are far better projects out there to get your fix. I'm holding out hope that this EP was simply the byproduct of overwhelming, uncertain change, and that navigating the immediate aftermath of a major lineup split left the band looking for a safe harbor. Moving forward, the duo needs to look inward for inspiration to deliver a more authentic version of themselves.