Almost 25 years have passed since Goldfinger’s self-titled debut that spawned the memorable tracks “Here In Your Bedroom,” “Mable,” and “Answers” and the band is still kicking. Guitarist Charlie Paulson has rejoined the band for the second time and the band has a new drummer who is a bit of a Travis Barker clone but it works for them. Now, I never checked out their last record, 2017’s The Knife because the band was so fractured that only frontman John Feldmann was the real member on it. Now that Paulson and Feldmann have patched up their differences, the band feels a bit closer to what they used to be, at least in my opinion. The album is a brief thirty-three minutes, similar to some of their earlier works but it all holds up well.

Among the opening tracks, “Wallflower” and “Infinite” are some of the best pop-punk to come out in a long while. This isn’t some Good Charlotte or Hot Topic mall punk; this is some of the last original stuff left out there and I’m glad that bridges have been mended and they have come together to make a good, cohesive record.

Some songs like “The City” and “California on My Mind” drag the record down and are way too poppy, missing that edge that the band needs to keep the record from being dull. “Nothing To Me” is about as close as they come to their classic sound, and that’s a great thing to hear from a record like this at the end of 2020. Even the midtempo songs like “The Best Life” and “Golden Days,” both of which both wax very nostalgically, keep the pace up and don’t bore the audience by introducing new styles.

Rating: B-

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