Review: Career Day's "I'll Always Be This"
The New York pop punk/emo quartet are at it again with catchy riffs, in your head hooks, and commentary on the world around us.
“Does ‘joy as protest’ plateau and I am just hiding/bystanding in my comfort?”
NYC socially conscious and angst filled emo rockers Career Day are at it again with a new release, and show no inkling of pulling any punches on the existential and political topics they continue to tackle with the four track EP, “I’ll Always Be This,” out on Friday, September 27th. The band, consisting of Desmond Zantua (vocals), Jacob Cutler (guitar), Ryan Maguire (drums), and Robbie Levin (bass), deliver an array of emotion, energy, creativity and thoughtfulness through this four track, ~twelve minute release that definitively calls for multiple listens to truly digest.
Track listing:
1. Team Player
2. Rumors Of My Wellness
3. Last Thread
4. One Bad Day
Team Player comes out of the gate with a catchy, driving pop punk riff and beat before giving way to a more steady verse with vocals chiming in, “The 1st always brings deep breaths/ Before I check to see if/ I even have enough for rent/ Just how is every month like this?” The track delves into topics of instability for much of the working class with making ends meet month to month, the dismissive complaints and clichés touted by more reactionary perspectives, the reality of why wealth inequality has grown amidst increased police militarization and imperialism, and how many people are ultimately told the equivalent of “shut up and dribble.” Overall, this song is a great kick off to a release and a staple pop punk anthem with a thinking person’s lyric delivery.
Rumors of My Wellness comes in as the second track and single previously released with a corresponding music video. The single comes out of the gate with some thought provoking lyrics and a hell of a punch, “I’m running out of things to quit/ rumors of my wellness/ sadly are overrated.” Rumors of My Wellness tackles the concept of becoming sober, the sort of “wellness” spiral many people can go down and be exacerbated by influencers and for profit motives, and how often times working to better ourselves through outward lenses can become its own form of crutch, or in Career Day’s words, “It still feels like I’m picking my poison.” The music has a drive in a similar vein to Team Player but with noticeable more grit and frustration being put front and center both vocally and instrumentally, especially with a chorus that will have you bob your head and sing along while realizing the impact of the words spoken.
Desmond stated concerning the lyrical background, “So there was a period at the beginning of 2023, where I just felt that I need to re-evaluate my relationship with alcohol, I didn’t have any sort of [drinking problem], never was a big drinker. You know, three drinks would get me feeling a little too out of control, a little to like, man, I’m gonna have such a bad headache tomorrow. But there was just this feeling, there’s this lowness that I was just feeling in general that alcohol was not having utility anymore. It was not having a calming utility for me. And I was starting to kind of have these like little mini panic attacks just at that feeling of like, I feel so low. And I stopped drinking like the second week of January. I hadn’t drank for [a couple of months], and at first it felt awesome. I felt so lucid, clear, light, and it was really nice. But then two months later I started having just bad, deep, downward like spirals of depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. And there was this feeling of like, alright, well that didn’t fucking do anything. And tis feeling of like wellness culture, and how all that self care and wellness has been a commodified thing… “For me I did not find a lightness, and it was this feeling that you don’t know what’s left to do; to be any different, to feel any different, and it’s kind of owning that frustration.”
Last Thread kicks on next, and the first thing to notice is the main riff played by Jacob Cutler that is a noticeable highlight from a songwriting perspective, pulling from a lot of classic elements of the pop punk and emo revival scenes. I personally heard a bit of Transit mixed with Taking Back Sunday and Motion City Soundtrack throughout this song, which is a perfect encapsulation of a lot of what is impressive from Career Day’s catalog. Lyrically the song dives into the push and pull of organizing and attempting to create a better world, while simultaneously being pushed and pulled by things around us continuing to deteriorate. The chorus sums up how many organizers and folks in activist spaces can feel perennially, “Knuckle up for the rest of your life/ out of spite or righteousness/ push come to shove/ clench your fist/ for everything you love/ worst case: a consolation prize/ resting my head knowing that I tried/ on the bed made from/ the last thread that I’m hanging on.” I especially enjoy the lyrics in the bridge that tie a bow on the entire song, “I still try/ because fuck ‘em/ that’s why.”
One Bad Day wraps up the four track EP and is, in my view, the highlight of the release. On the overall heavier and more angsty side of the band, it dives into a very specific topic while branching it out an overall viewpoint of the society we live in. Kicking off with the lines, “So the day begins/ with a public execution/ on the way to work/ on the F train/ and the day goes on/ as the bored, born-henchmen/ give their bloothirsty refrains. Desmond stated that the influx of the song came from the killing of Jordan Neely, a homeless man on the NYC subway that was choked to death by ex-Marine Daniel Penny. Career Day not only mention the disturbing callousness of this story, both in the moment and at large in public discourse, but how the murder of Neely was a microcosm of every day people viewing their homeless and struggling neighbors as subhuman while they themselves struggle under the thumb of the wealthy and those in power. “See an enemy in your cellmate/ and the captors’ breadcrumbs taste like grace/ when you’re just a doctor’s call away/ to find the streets are closer than the suites.” This song pounds and drives in a way that raises hairs, gives goosebumps, and makes the listener want to break something.
Overall, on a scale from 1 to 10, this release gets a 9.5/10 for me. The production is clear but raw, the vocal delivery is emotional and sobering, and the songwriting and musicianship is off the charts. My only caveat, as is the case with many great EPs, is that I wanted more and wanted to hear the further diversity in dynamics and ebb and flows that Career Day did so well on Where We’ve Always Been, which is somewhat of a copout to say that the EP is so good I just wanted more songs out of it. I guess for that, we’ll wait for the next full length from the group.
Desmond stated about the onus of the release, “Inherently, things will feel like a sequel just because if you’re writing the lyrics and they’re largely based off of your life, it will be that way. With four songs like with this EP, it’s hammering, hammering, hammering, and [I was] trying to find, like, what is the tying thread here? and for me, it’s how the world makes me feel. The EP art kind of mirrors this. The album [2022 Where We’ve Always Been] was very much just what I was taking in from the world around me, both growing up over a long arc of time, as well as immediately in just a lot of the discourse and unrest of the Trump years and early Biden period. Whereas, this is about kind of, you’ve taken in this world, you’ve now kind of seen where it’s gone since then. Spoiler, people didn’t keep the pedal to the metal against the power. When the structures of this world make it hard enough just to get out the door and back in the door, that you’re barely able to afford. This is about, you know, what are you able to choose to be and how are you able to be that.”
You can stream I’ll Always Be This at midnight tonight on September 27th on all platforms. Find the links at linktr.ee/careerdayny
You can catch the around hour and a half long The Power/Less Podcast episode with vocalist Desmond Zantua at midnight on all platforms. Links at linktr.ee/thepowerlesspod
