THE RR PLAYLIST VOL. III: 10 POP-PUNK BANGERS TO GET YOU THROUGH EXAM SEASON

Exam season is among us. Can you hear the collective cry of anxiety, panic and desperation? It sounds a little something like 'FUCK!' 

I've always been more of a person who can thrive in their own time (usually during all-nighters in the library) through coursework, so I counted my lucky stars that my degree was completely exam-free. That's not to rub it in - by that point I'd been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and ruined it during one of those unnecessarily snotty crying sessions. 

Now I'm back at college for my journalism diploma, I'm back in the exam rooms and I'm once again trying to shift my anxieties. It's tough, I get it. I'm not here to 'do a Jacob Sartorius' (the little twatface), I'm just here to remind you that there's no music that can get you more psyched before entering that deathly quiet exam hall than pop-punk. 

Songs about love, songs about the summer, songs about your friends, songs about your hometown, songs about getting out of your hometown with your friends, in the summer no less... The tiniest melody or shortest lyric just does something to you that makes you want to jump around like every early-00s pop-punk band you watched on Kerrang! (Remember: it's hop-hop-tuck jump-hop, repeat...)

I was inspired to make an exam season edition of THE RR PLAYLIST after a friend told me that the pop-punk playlist I had made for myself on Spotify (appropriately titled Pre-Exam Posi Vibes) helped him out too before we sat the same exam. Below are 10 pop-punk songs to invigorate your very best feels, be it in a cathartic process or an all-out burst of positivity. After a blast of this, you'll be ready to go 'OH YEAH? WELL FUCK YOU TOO, EXAMS.'

I'm not going to say anything more on the featured tracks as I have previously done with The RR Playlists, because let's face it, you've got better things to do than hear me wazzing off about how good New Found Glory are. There's plenty of opportunities for that on the other side of exam season. Instead, here are 3 lyrics from the playlist to give you a quick burst of the happy feels...

"ONE STEP AT A TIME, ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER, I'M GONNA GET THROUGH THIS, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER"

- Alan Day & Dan O'Connor Four Year Strong - 'One Step At A Time'

"THIS FEELING WILL ONLY GET BETTER, I'LL JUST HOLD IT ALL TOGETHER"

- Eddy Brewerton, Moose Blood - 'Honey'

AAAAND my personal favourite:

"IN THIS VAST NETWORK OF SHARKS AND MINNOWS, WHERE THE MINNOWS OUTNUMBER THE SHARKS A MILLION TO ONE, WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE YET TO CONVERGE? TO TAKE ON THE UPPER HAND? WHY HAVE WE BEEN SO SCARED? WELL NOT TODAY, NOT ANYMORE, THIS IS US GROWING UP, STILL YOUNG BUT NO LONGER OPPRESSIONABLE, WE HAVE COME TO PILLAGE, WE HAVE COME TO BURN, WE HAVE COME TO INCITE THE RIOT, WE HAVE COME TO TAKE IT OVER!"

- Jordan Brown & Matt Wilson, Set Your Goals - 'Mutiny!'

(If you don't feel like you could fuck the sky after hearing that, then you need help)

Think of the summer. Think of festivals. Think of warm cans of cider. Think of the fact that I managed to graduate from university, and look at me, I'm a wreck.

And if that doesn't help, here's Bill Murray with the final words...

Danny

EP REVIEW: SAD BLOOD - 'LEGION OF GLOOM'

I don't know how many times I can say this on Randon's Reviews (or anywhere where I can chat bollocks, for that matter): it is such an exciting time to be in the UK punk scene right now. Whether they're pop-punk-y or grunge-y or alt-rock-y, the multitude of exciting up-and-coming bands stretches far beyond being strictly 'punk' in style or tone.

I would comfortably put SAD BLOOD in the same bracket as some of the spikier-sounding bands of their scene, thanks to their affinity for small DIY tours and house shows, and the fact that they can make a music video simply out of getting drunk and dicking around with puppets (see below for more on that).

Following on from the brief and brilliant debut Ultimate Worrier, the London trio's second EP LEGION OF GLOOM offers another five bursts of bright and breezy power-pop with spells of #relatable emo wistfulness.

You could say that melancholic lyricism is in this band's blood (boom boom). The band have previously spoken to Upset about how Legion Of Gloom soundtracks the process of "trying to create something positive out of something negative", and out of that comes lyrics are honest and humorously self-deprecating (precisely as the band's two EP titles suggest).

As you may have predicted after his sterling job not only on Ultimate Worrier, but also in manning the desk for Milk Teeth, Creeper, Press to MECO, Weatherstate and pretty much any other cool new UK band you can think of, producer Neil Kennedy has done what he does best yet again in preserving the squeaky-clean clarity that hits Sad Blood's anthems home... (Note to self: I really must get him on Bitchin' Brew just so we can chat about how brilliant all of these bands are....)

Legion Of Gloom may be two tracks longer than its predecessor, but oddly little less rhythmic and melodic variation than before. Nevertheless, 'Heavy Petting Zoo' clocks in at just 1:48 and is up there with the best (if fleeting) moments of new British music in 2016. Sad Blood are brimming with potential as a longer body of work surely looms over the coming months.

Throwing you as much jovial charm as it does miffed-out mellowness, Legion Of Gloom is pleasant, inoffensive and, as with most British punk EPs of late, over way too quickly, but infectious enough to loop a few times over. Whether you see them as happy songs for sad people, or sad songs for happy people, be sure to queue this up next to The Hotelier and that certified banger that is the new Moose Blood track for your emo picnic playlists.

TOP TRACKS: 'HEAVY PETTING ZOO'; 'FORMERLY CREATIVE'

RR RATING:

7 / 10

LEGION OF GLOOM IS OUT NOW. STREAM IT ON SOUNDCLOUD BELOW:

Happy people, sad people, drunk people, all people: until next time, peace out.

Danny