Keeping the torch lit for anthemic emo rock, Chicago's Knuckle Puck come with big Warped Tour energy on their effusive third album, 2020's aptly titled 20/20. Though the group started in 2010, Knuckle Puck's sound has always harked back to the dynamic, early-2000s punk-pop and dual-vocal emo-rock of bands like Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday. Showcasing vocalists Joe Taylor and guitarist/singer Nick Casasanto, Knuckle Puck streamlined that sound, offering their own sophisticated, endlessly melodic interpretation. It's an aesthetic they further hone on 20/20, an album rife with an emotional immediacy that feels informed by, if not explicitly about, the divisive U.S. cultural moments of 2020. More palpable is the sense that the band are looking back on their youth, letting themselves savor the melancholy of times passed and then finding the strength to move forward with a positive mindset. On "Into the Blue" they sing, "I wanna swan dive from twenty-thousand feet above it all/I wanna fall into the blue/Could you help me feel infinite?/Just let me hold onto this feeling." It's a vibe they return to throughout the album, as on "Tune You Out," "True North," and "Sidechain," goosebump-inducing anthems full of lightning-crisp guitar riffs, kinetic drum patterns, and unapologetically nasal vocal harmonies. Elsewhere, they conjure yet more inspiring vibes, evoking Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" on their ebullient "Earthquake," and pairing with Mayday Parade vocalist Derek Sanders for the shimmering "Breathe." Although it arrives a decade into Knuckle Puck's career, 20/20 is full of enough freshly invigorated energy and creative inspiration that it feels both familiar and brand new.
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