Review: Handguns’ Quintessentially Pop-Punk “Life Lessons”

–Written by Michael Hogan

It’s been nearly 4 years since I’ve played in a band. That really sucks, but life happens; I moved back home, finished up school, got a big boy job, all the good shit. I still work with music, I just never got around to joining another band. Sometimes I would get the fleeting urge to start back up, reflecting to myself, “Man, that was awesome.” For much of those last four years, it’s been anything but an all-consuming feeling. The way I saw it, if it happened again one day that would be cool, but it wasn’t a really pressing thing.

That isn’t really the case anymore, and I place a lot of the blame for that on pop-punk. While I’ve never played in a pop-punk band before, it always seemed like a lot of fun. If you look at press shots of bands the metalcore and post hardcore guys (the bands I played in, of course) are all dark and serious – the photos always seem to be taken during the winter, as if to oppress even coincidental tones of warmth. But the pop-punk guys aren’t like that. You can hear it in every chord, every drum beat, every vocal be it screamed or sung. You can just feel how much fun they’re having. And that’s cool. I like that.

And just recently, Handguns have made things a whole lot worse. Their newest album, Life Lessons (out now on Pure Noise Records), is that perfect mix of pop-punk energy and genuine fun that leaves me with the uncontrollable urge to play some power chords and jump around on stage with my friends.

The North American pop-punk scene, especially in the Northeast, seems to be a very tight knit crowd. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were all taking turns dropping game-changing albums; albums that set the benchmark for the rest of the year’s releases. In 2011, it was Suburbia by The Wonder Years. Last year, it was What You Don’t See by The Story So Far. And this year, it’s Life Lessons.

See, Handguns have always been a good band. They haven’t always been the same band – they’ve had more lineup changes than albums – but they’ve always been good. That being said, this album is on a completely different level. It’s a significant and logical progression for the band, one that finds them pushing their way into the upper tier of pop-punk greats. It’s an album that has that same sort of lasting power as the aforementioned Suburbia, which still sees regular rotation in my library more than three years after its release.

Handguns have finally perfected that fun, energetic Northeastern style of pop-punk: fueled by tales from the road, laid on a foundation of the good ol’ pop-punk sense of friendship, and existing always within a sense of awareness equal parts nostalgic and self-deprecating. It’s the sort of sound that will resonate with me for the rest of this summer – any truly good pop-punk album is summer stereo ready – and in the months and years to come. It’s impossibly energetic, it’s infectiously nostalgic, and it’s one of the most enjoyable pop punk albums I’ve heard in the last year.

Now I just need to find some people dumb enough to start a pop-punk band with me. And when they get sick of my boundless excitement I’m definitely going to be blaming it on Handguns.

Hear “Heart Vs. Head” off Handguns’ sophomore full-length Life Lessons below. Grab the album through the band’s official merch store here.