If you like Rock and Roll at all, there's no excuse to not check out Graduating Life. Graduating Life is, essentially, an Indie/Punk/Rock and Roll act put together by Bart Starr (from Fresno, California, also a member of Mom Jeans.) and consisting of whoever he brings into the studio and on tour, with the lineup on "Grad Life" being a large conglomerate of cameos from friends of his and bands he's a fan of.

I messaged the Graduating Life Twitter account (@graduatinglife) asking how to give a bio to the band, and was told "I'm just a regular guy who loves music and has been playing for 8 years trying to make the best album ever!" Graduating Life's first full-length record, 2017's "An Introduction to Rock and Roll" was one of the most fun listening experiences of that year, full of great riffs and catchy hooks and multi-layered instrumentation perfectly mixed, mastered, and produced to a level you wouldn't expect from most bands on independent labels, (Counter Intuitive Records, in this case), making their debut.

This year, with their sophomoric effort "Grad Life", Graduating Life has pulled out all the stops (and brought in all the friends) and left no one who has listened unchanged. Multiple people on Twitter have compared the power and, presumably, the future impact of this record to that of Say Anything's "...Is A Real Boy" and the comparison is strikingly true in a sense. Bart's voice sounds like the spitting image of Max Bemis' at points, and at least the intro track, "There's Only One Way", comes across quite similarly to many of the songs on "...Is A Real Boy".

That being said, it would be pretty boring and regressive--and I wouldn't be writing my first ever album review over this record--if it fully emulated Say Anything's 2005 debut. This record is a long way from either boring or regressive, it is the perfect bridge between the modern sound and everything I and many others loved about many other eras of pop/punk, punk, and rock and roll, and manages to still bring something fresh to the table.

This album is full of raw emotion, a summary of every ounce of childhood, teenage, and young adult angst imaginable, but at no point does it come across as anything more than honest. Never condescending, never whiny, never any level of obnoxious. It is full to the brim with emotional distress, spanning every topic from bullying to the loss of a loved one, from a horrible home life to missing your friends, from mental health to being surrounded by drug use, and much more.

Yet it manages to have some of the catchiest chants and fun riffs and unique instrumentation, all without watering itself down to a boring, predictable, or "typical" song or album structure.

The directions this album goes and the ways it sounds aren't at all predictable from the beginning, or even from the middle, even to those who already have experience listening to previous Graduating Life works.

While starting as an acoustic, slowly building verse followed by a repeating refrain and gang vocals used effectively, the intro to this album proves not to expect anything and only to look forward to whatever may come around the next bend as you listen, as it soon launches into a large, anthemic instrumental break and then builds ever more into a powerful-feeling track that kicks this album off beautifully.

From the intro track alone, it's evident that Bart has more tricks and range up his sleeve, vocally and instrumentally, and as the album progresses it's evident that he intends to show them all off. And he does.

One of the most immediate standouts with the sound of this album is the generous use of piano and synths, adding an unexpected and super cool layer to the sound. There are multiple layers of guitars in each song, as well as bass and drums as one would expect. There is also a horn section making frequent appearances throughout, which just makes the emotion and crispness of the record come across even more clearly.

Beyond the synth and horns, though, the backing and gang vocals really help to fully flesh out the sound of this record to be everything it became. From the occasional soaring vocals coming from Just Friends's Brianda Goyos to the distinct sound of Eric Butler from Mom Jeans.'s voice in the background to the random hoots and hollers to the chanting gang vocals throughout this record, the human voice plays a large part in putting together the sonic beauty of this album.

Bart's own vocals on this album are flawless, exploring everything from his softest singing to his most intense yelling, from high to low, from borderline-spoken to full-on belted out, showcasing his ability to use what he has in his range in multiple different ways.

The lyrics are also fantastic on this, every song having at least one exceptionally striking line, yet still remaining catchy and fun to sing along to. Even the trickiest melodies and lines are quick-learners so never fear on first listen, you'll soon be screaming every word at the top of your lungs every time you revisit this album.

I mentioned the many themes and concepts covered by the content of this album earlier, so I'll just list a few of my favorite lines and why they're favorites. I'll start by shouting out the entirety of "Family Reunion", a song so well-written about the struggles of a less-than-ideal (read: shitty) family that nearly every line is quotable.

My favorite, however, is the line "I'm not the article you share without reading the whole page, every detail about me is grueling and I hope to keep it that way." I'm a big fan of this line because it feeds into that part of the psyche that enjoys having something negative to talk about, like an expression of negative energy to get the negativity out of your mind.

Another standout line comes about in the immediate next song, "Raise A White Flag", and the line in question is "I started medication, weaned myself off, that happiness was artificial and fake, don't you agree? If my happiness has to be forced, then it wasn't meant to be." Nearly anyone who has been on medication to help with mental illness has had times like this, where it's just as frustrating that you rely on them for stability and happiness as it was rarely experiencing those before starting medication.

The memorable lines never slow, and the album keeps building in intensity, lifting you up sonically while tearing into your heart with the lyrics like none other, for example in "It's Second Year," there's the line "How could you make me then hate me once I'm born?" or in "Don't Have Kids," a song about struggling with both school and home life, Bart sings the line "I just want one household to grow up in." The entirety of "Watch You Die!!!" is just an absolutely soul-crushing depiction of being present in the hospital when someone close to you passes.

Not all the lyrics are so dismal, though. They are all emotional, they are all well-written, but there are lines throughout the album that are much less negative. Many of the gang vocals are either explicitly chanting somewhat hopeful things or are implicitly, through being gang vocals, representative of things not being as bleak as they seem, through repeating a mantra in a crowd and showing that you're not the only one who goes through the struggles being expressed.

One of my favorites is from my personal favorite track on the entire album, "Stinky Man", and the line is "That's why I play these songs, in hopes someone sings along, so you can share my pain, let's connect our brains and be two broken halves."

A perfectly eloquent statement of the relationship between musicians and fans, between musicians and each other, between fans and each other, and between any people who relate to each other, about sharing pain making everything feel a little easier, even if it's still a little broken.

The entirety of "Victory Song" is a great moment in the album that provides an uplifting message, ending with the chant "Don't give up now" over and over again, but also featuring great lines such as "F**k the people who bring you down, every dips**t man with a sexist mouth (f**k em!), any time you wanna speak your mind the floor is yours, don't be ignored or pushed to the back of the f**king line."

Reminding all the non-men who listen to the album to take no s**t from men who try to undermine them, and reminding them that they are strong and powerful and valid and their thoughts and ideas deserve to be expressed.

The album somehow manages to flow gorgeously and often seamlessly from one track to the next, with the first seven tracks all fading into one another, despite exploring different niches within their shared sounds.

The first and only noticeable break in the sound of the album is between the ending of "Stinky Man" and beginning of "Victory Song", and even that may be from an error in Spotify playback. There is no ounce of sound on the record that comes across as anything less than epic and meticulously planned out.

The closing track of the album, "Finale", is just as huge-sounding as the intro, further proving the running commentary's point that Graduating Life has achieved Say Anything levels of cohesive and powerful.

Somehow, Bart along with every other musician featured on the album, Ryan Ellery (the mastermind behind the recording of the album and one of the people attributed with producing), James Trevascus (mastering), and Sam Kless (also producing), manage to make the studio recording of this record sound as full, lively, and intense as if it were an intimate living-room performance and yet as crisp and clean as you'd expect any professionally-recorded music to be.

I could say so many words about the production of this thing but they'll all amount to the same point: it's absolutely gorgeous.

On this album, Bart and crew prove themselves again and again in so many ways and leave all who listen coming back for more again and again. "Grad Life" is a wonderful piece of art that deserves every ounce of recognition it's receiving and then some. Graduating Life is a self-proclaimed "BEAST MODE" band, and this record exemplifies every ounce of what that phrase evokes. They have proven themselves more than worthy of the phrase they've awarded themselves.

You can check out the album on Spotify here, on Bandcamp here, and can find merch for a limited time here, if you're interested. Give this album a listen, give this band a follow-on all their social media (all under @graduatinglife), and look forward to more.

Favorite Tracks: Stinky Man, It's Second Year, Family Reunion, Watch You Die!!!, Victory Song, Finale

Score: Scores are arbitrary, just know that this album absolutely f**s.