Pool Kids' third album, Easier Said Than Done, shimmers with emotional clarity and courage. Adrenalizing and irresistible, it brings the dynamism of the band’s live show into the studio, showcasing a style that's unmistakably their own. Pool Kids first started playing on Tallahassee's house show circuit. The band earned a fan in Paramore's Hayley Williams with their debut album, 2018's Music to Practice Safe Sex To. After they filled out to a four-piece -- Andy Anaya on guitar, Nicolette Alvarez on bass, Caden Clinton on drums, and Christine Goodwyne on guitar and vocals -- their 2022 self-titled record netted critical acclaim with its lush, high-contrast mixture of pop, emo, and math rock. They've shared stages with The Mountain Goats, PUP, Beach Bunny, and La Dispute. They hold fast to their DIY principles: Anyone can do what Pool Kids do. Anyone can start a band. For Easier Said Than Done, Pool Kids worked with producer Mike Vernon Davis (Foxing, Great Grandpa). They funded the record themselves, and spent five weeks recording in Seattle. To save money during sessions, they stayed with friends, in motels, and slept on the floor of the studio. "We did a lot of searching, playing each song a million different ways and deciding which one sounded the best," says Goodwyne. With the completed record in hand, the band signed to Epitaph. On the thundering "Tinted Windows," Goodwyne grits her teeth at the way spending months on tour and missing important milestones can stress close relationships. "Exit Plan" memorializes the experience of saying goodbye to friends at the end of a string of shows, knowing those powerful bonds may never feel the same again. On "Bad Bruise," Goodwyne makes a bid for understanding: "Pretty please, empathy / Got me on my knees," she sings while the band closes ranks around her. Powerful collectivity rings through Easier Said Than Done -- in the dynamic interplay between Goodwyne and Anaya's guitars, in Alvarez's gravitational basslines, in Clinton's whirling drum patterns. Pool Kids lock together into a unified force, propelling themselves forward into hard-won release. Easier Said Than Done impresses one of the most important reminders anyone can hear: You don’t have to do anything in this world alone.

“So, how to proceed?” Travis Harrington asks on the final track of Running From the Chase, the commanding new album from Truth Club. How do you move forward when the present moment is rife with mounting challenges — when you’re caught between the weight of the past and the uncertainty of the future? Running From the Chase was written in part through a time of intense personal hardship for Harrington, but it was through these struggles he and his bandmates (drummer Elise Jaffe, guitarist/bassist Kameron Vann, and guitarist/bassist/singer Yvonne Chazal) gained a deeper appreciation of the power of their shared creative endeavor, both the cathartic release found in the dynamic squall of their music and in the friendships forged by this communal pursuit. Their album doesn’t have an easy answer to Harrington’s searching question, but under these songs’ bruising exteriors, you can hear the sound of a band looking towards one another to learn how to move forward. Running From the Chase was recorded with producer and engineer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Snail Mail, Angel Olsen) at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios through the spring and summer of 2022. Farrar immediately made them feel right at home, which allowed the band to bring a sense of curiosity, commitment, and experimentation to the process. Dynamics were considered in songwriting as well as sequencing; off-kilter “77x” builds an eerie scene over a minimal slowcore foundation before the following track “Clover” thrusts into a playful headbanger. Throughout Running From the Chase — whose title alludes to the need to balance one’s individual desires with external expectations and pressures — Harrington’s lyrics plunge into despair and frustration, confronting possibilities with a hint of hope and a strong undercurrent of dejection. The result is an album that’s sweeping and sophisticated, balancing considered introspection with a stunning, newly expanded sound.