I have to admit that this is pretty much my first Hot Water Music experience and after listening to, "The New What Next", I have to say that I feel ashamed. The reason why I decided to give HWM a listen was after hearing, ‘Trusty Chords’, on Epitaph Punk-O-Rama 8, which is from their 2002 album, ’Caution’, and after hearing that song I knew I had to get one of their albums and by that time it wasn’t long until this album was due to be released, so I decided to wait. In one aspect, I’m glad I waited because this is simply one of the best punk albums I’ve listened to this year but then on the other hand I wished I would have started listening to Hot Water Music years ago.

This album starts off with a dark opener on, ‘Poison’, which really reminds me of Alkaline Trio which is never a bad thing. The next song, ‘The End Of The Line’, is one of my favourite songs on the album and is a lot more pop-punky and is a quality little number that bounces along nicely and had me singing it at work for the whole day after listening to it. ‘All Heads Down’, is another bouncy song that I enjoyed but serious in its content about realising that everyone is on their own in this life. ‘Under Everything’, is a more upbeat affair which is about seizing the moment and contains the lyrics, ‘Time is such a wasted luxury’. Then there’s, ‘There Are Already Roses’, which is a more emotional song about relationships coming to an end. There are other songs like, ‘My Little Monkey Wrench’, and ‘The Ebb & The Flow’, which are both cool, catchy and melodic punk rock tracks.

Then there’s the three songs at the end of the album ’Ink & Lead’, ’This Early Grave’, & ’Giver’ which along with, ‘The End Of The Line’, our my favourite songs on this album. The ’Ink & Lead’ is a stand out track and is very much different from the rest of the album, you can call it the albums’ token slower love song if you want but by no means underestimate it, it is a song of pure quality. ’This Early Grave’ is a more up tempo track and leads on well to, ‘Giver’, which is the brilliant and inspirational final track, which starts with the lyrics, “Dream wild in waves of confidence and heart, don’t underestimate the power of your part. Throw the rules away, trust your gut and make it on your own."

It proves this year there has been no limit to the amount of quality that has come out of Epitaph record. In the past year we have seen quality albums from Motion City Soundtrack, Matchbook Romance, From First To Last, Bouncing Souls, etc. You should seriously go out and get this album now because believe me by the end of the year people will be mentioning this album when they are talking about the best albums of the year.