Record Label: A-F Records
Genre: Political Punk
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

Since I’m cynical as fuck, I’m not into political punk. I believe that most socio-economic political issues are too complex to condense into two-minute songs, and the issues that are easy to decide on (racism sucks, politicians and the media lies to the public, etc.) are obvious, played-out cliches. Plus, as I get older, I get annoyed at kids younger and richer than me bitching about the system.

That being said, Thought Riot surprised me by having pretty good lyrics. They say the same old same old, but they do it in a fresher, more poetic way (their lyrics are actually more akin to thoughtful emo than generic political punk).

The music is also much better than I expected, and the vocals are some of the best in this genre. No hardcore screaming and, thankfully, no shrill whining. Good vocal melodies, background singing, and pop-punk song construction. I have to say, although I wouldn’t listen to this again, if you like young, impassioned, political emo-punk you can’t get much better than Though Riot.

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