Growing up sucks. Growing up is awesome. You trade in the insecurities of one age for another, and yet somehow become wiser in the process — or at least that's the idea. After just a couple of solid EPs, that seems to be the crossroads where the Brooklyn band Chumped stands right now. "Name That Thing" comes from a debut album with an appropriate title: Teenage Retirement.
"Name That Thing" is a catchy-as-hell pop-punk song with a wistful quality befitting a desire to cling desperately to youth. A dynamic vocalist here, guitarist Anika Pyle speeds through the chorus with an audible sigh:
And we drank and we talked s-- and I was happy
Tried so desperately to hold onto the feeling
Of being young, of being sure, of being lucky
'Cause I get down and it's so easy to feel nothing
Once she's joined by her bandmates at the final chorus, however, she and the song are empowered. This is a running theme in Chumped's short career thus far. It really comes out in the music video for "Something About Lemons": Don't go it alone, because we're in this thing together.
Teenage Retirement comes out Nov. 18 on Anchorless Records.
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