“I wonder when these moments end, content façade is my pretend.”
Running out of SF/Bay Area, CA, Pity Party have made themselves a formidable force since forming in 2014. Performing hundreds of shows in the states, actively supporting beneficial organizations such as A Safe Place in CA and PAAR in Pitsburgh, and consistently releasing music all alongside all of this. 2023 now brings their most recent EP, Sick Sad World Survival Guide, which is a recording/re-imagining of their older highlights, as well as new track “Ionize My Enemies“.
Leading the EP comes Pity Party’s most popular track, “Suicide Handbook“. Its pop-punk sensibilities are overlayed with the harsh realities of its lyrics: “You said shit would get better, all I have are bad days“. The main comparison here is going to be the adjustment in mix, production and overall quality. Thankfully Pity Party keep their rough-around-the-edges style in this re-release, meaning everything sounds a bit more crisp, especially when the vocals switch in the closing stretch.
Tracks “Waste Of Life” and “Booze Cruz” both come from 2016 record Gnarbage, and both do benefit from this re-recording. The former, despite its quick pace, is a joyful track to sit with, and its production is oozing 00s stylings, along with riffs that throwback to the same era. “Booze Cruz” keeps it short and sweet, with some smooth drum work on the fills that sit nicely on the ear, yet the vocal here could do with being a bit higher on the mix especially on the end stretch of the track.
A title-track-but-not-title-track, “Gnarbage” brings its octane energy to Sick Sad World Survival Guide, with rapid and precise guitar riffs giving a paced tension to the track. It’s a headbanger and no doubt a track that would wake up dead room in a live setting. An even bigger pay-off could have elevated the track, but bar that there is little to fault here. After this comes the new track “Ionize My Enemies“, which sits on the lyric “You deserve every bad thing that comes to you“. There’s some nice guitar work here that gets some deserved time to display swell riffs on the bridge, yet as enjoyable as this track is, for better or for worse doesn’t strike itself out from their older material.
Closing out Sick Sad World Survival Guide comes “Toxic“, and as you would guess, a cover of the well-known Britney Spears songs. On a first listen it’s certain to be an unexpected surprise, even if the tracklisting should give it away. It does seem somewhat out of place, but it goes back to the hundreds of shows Pity Party have done. They are primarily a live band and this no doubt plays into that, rather than being a track intended to be listened to while desk-dwelling.
It’s a tricky one to know how to summarise as Sick Sad World Survival Guide is mostly half-a-decade old material with an upgrade, alongside one new track and a cover. The improvement that has come from the recording of the likes of “Suicide Handbook“, making it a much more enjoyable listen, all while keeping that rough early pop-punk style that many modern bands have lost. Sick Sad World Survival Guide does add to the yearn for what will hopefully be a new EP or full-length from Pity Party sooner rather than later, as this repacking does further prove that they are quite good at what they do.
7/10
Sick Sad World Survival Guide is out August 25th via SBÄM Records, and can be pre-ordered here.