SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: TACOCAT – THIS MESS IS A PLACE

Tacocat
This Mess Is A Place
Sub Pop

Tacocat’s fourth full-length album This Mess is a Place is their first release on Sub Pop, and full of feminist pop-punk that will have you dancing into the Spring. The album’s opening song “Hologram” speaks on demonizing sensitivity with Emily Nokes singing “How did we come to be so jaded?”

This Mess is a Place is refreshing pop-punk at its finest. It shows vulnerability with reverb-soaked songs such as “New World”, with its lyrics such as:

“New world, new planet/
No ugly buildings in my eyes/
No paperwork, no jerks, no parking tickets/
No greed to feed, no nine-to-five.” 

From songs like “Grains of Salt” that contain optimistic synthy choruses to reflective tracks such as “The Joke of Life”, Tacocat’s new album plays with juxtapositions to tease out the answers to power structures, propaganda, and alienation.

Conjuring the ghost of radical sci-fi author Ursula K. Le Guin on the song “Rose-Colored Sky”, Nokes examines privilege and disadvantages marginalized communities face from always being on a battleground instead of living life. The song “Crystal Ball” rounds out (yes pun intended) the album perfectly with vulnerably honest lyrics such as:

“Spent a year in the bathtub/
I was busy fallin’ out of love/
With myself, with my feelings/
With everyone’s way of dealing.”

With more and more people living precarious lifestyles working a full-time job, an internship, delivering food, and driving a ride share amidst the rising creep of fascism, everyone can relate to Emily’s lyric “What a time to be barely alive.” This Mess is a Place is a dancey, contemplative, yet optimistic must-listen-to-pop-punk album of 2019.

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