For The Win
Heavy Thoughts
(Victory Records)
For The Win’s previous album More Than You Know started off strong and remained enjoyable to its end, but lacked identity. With a formula very much reminiscent of A Day to Remember and Close Your Eyes, the band almost skimmed under the radar as a result with their release. However, their sophomore effort, Heavy Thoughts, should change that with ease. Though the band hasn’t done anything different to set their sound apart (in all honesty), their latest collection is a difficult one to ignore; supercharged and tightened, the tracks composing Heavy Thoughts are downright addictive and memorable. Opening with “Us Versus Them”, the band makes their return with the pump of ten thousand fists in the air, and although no other track quite hits this amount of perfected energy, the album continues to lay out one hit after another. “All or Nothing”, “Nowhere to Run”, and “Dancing Shoes” are all top contenders, and (of course) the record comes to a close on an acoustic builder (“Until the End of Time”). Heavy Thoughts is most definitely recommended for fans of pop-punk and hardcore, and it’s coming out just in time for those end of summer jams.
