On “Kirby Down B,” Harrison Gordon sings ”I′m a chеap copy of Rosenstock, I barely even reek of beer.” While I have always heard the Jeff Rosenstock influence, I’ve also always thought this line overly diminished the lane Harrison Gordon was carving for themselves. But if you know them, then you know that embracing self-doubt and negative self-talk is kind of their thing. And that emotionally charged vulnerability is back around every corner on their sophomore LP BLISS.
With this being their first release for Hopeless Records, Harrison Gordon leaned on what worked for their breakout success The Yuppies are Winning rather than falling for some reinvention in an attempt to reach for even wider success. In this sense, the spirit of this album is very reminiscent of something like In Utero: it’s gritty, it’s not perfect, it embraced their own sound, and it’s urgent. Every Harrison Gordon track feels urgent, even the slower songs, and that is a big part of their charm.
The LP starts with “Weirdo,” one of many seemingly self-conversations spiraling into that self-hatred and failure one can expect from them. It’s a song full of pace changes and wailing guitar that shreds all throughout. And that doesn’t stop with “Weirdo” either as this entire album is driving and chaotic and aggressive without sacrificing the catchiness that they’ve so seamlessly branded for themselves.
Another consistent theme in the Harrison Gordon universe is angst towards capitalism and the consistent smothering of a working class job. That is addressed in BLISS on the single “Not Working! Not Working!“ with brutal lyrics “yeah, you’re just not working hard enough, stop caring for the people that you truly love when you could be working harder.” A song that again leans into that catchiness that gets everyone involved, this is already a must-have in any live set moving forward.
The album does have its moment for breath, most notably smack dab in the middle with swaying singalong “Scab.” Another song about, well to put it frankly, seeing yourself as a screw up. It’s cathartic, like an emo lullaby, and features an amazing guitar solo. And it builds to something bigger which is further evidence of the talent this band has. They effortlessly switch up rhythms and emotion and sound like seasoned vets at this point while still being a really young band.
While BLISS is an album that picks up where their debut left off while keeping it fresh, I must say the title track is the most exciting song on the record because it somewhat gives a glimpse into the band’s evolution. The closing track starts with a heavy intro that feels like a breakdown before picking up the urgency again. It’s a song with chapters and scale, and while there are still the wailing guitars and catchy gang vocals, it immediately felt to me like a mark of where this project can take them. After listening to this song, I felt the same way I did when I heard “This Song is Called it’s Called What’s it Called” or “Slumdog Scungillionaire” by Hot Mulligan. These are songs where you can just feel the effort they take to show what they are capable of. “Bliss” gave me this same feeling and is such an exciting closer with all of this in mind.
This album has made me incredibly bullish on Harrison Gordon. Their early success with The Yuppies are Winning cannot be denied but to follow up with this banger of an album makes me genuinely stoked to see where it takes them. They are surrounded and supported by pretty much everyone in the DIY punk/emo scene and I truly don’t see them going anywhere but up. In the meantime, I cannot WAIT to catch these tracks live.
BLISS comes out on Friday, September 4th on Hopeless Records. Make sure you give the singles a spin in the meantime:
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