Album Reviews

Two months ago, a desperate husband rented a helicopter to break his wife out of a prison here in Belgium. The plan didn’t work and now they are both in prison. Still not together. Looking at the album cover and title of Winning Streak’s sophomore album, one can’t help but wonder how that might have turned out if the band’s new album had already been out in September.

Having beefed up their line-up with the addition of Much The Same’s Chris McGrath and Debt Cemetary’s Davey Knight and the re-release of debut album ‘Whichever Path You Take,’ Winning Streak really are living up to their name. And to top things off, the Texas-based band’s sophomoric album ‘We Need A Plan’ is out now on Thousand Islands Records (US/CAN) and Disconnect Disconnect Records (UK/EU).

If you are into technical yet highly melodic skatepunk that takes you right back to the heydays of the EpiFat sound but still comes off as fresh, then this album is for you. Lightning-fast drums pummel your ass, riffs fly by left, right and center and over this sonic onslaught, McGrath - sounding not unlike BoySetsFire’s Nathan Gray - keeps everything in place with a solid vocal performance. But with all this shredding going on, these guys make sure to let emotion and melody take the driver seat rather than getting lost in their technical proficiency.

Opening the album with the title track, Winning Streak hit the ground running with a blistering song that sounds like the middle ground between Strung Out and No Use For A Name. From there on, they don’t let off and make your head spin with ‘The Dark’, the larger than life chorus in ‘Antihero’, previously released single ‘We Live Here’ and the darker sounding closer that is ‘We’ll Make It Home’.

Track listing:

1. We Need A Plan    
2. I Tried To Run    
3. Authenticity    
4. The Dark    
5. Positivity (Everything Is Screwed)    
6. Three Hundred Million    
7. Anchor In You    
8. Antihero    
9. We Live Here    
10. Stop Screaming    
11. We’ll Make It Home