Album Reviews

New York natives The Jukebox Romantics have been going at it for thirteen years already and are finally back with some new tuneage. These five songs were supposed to be part of a full-length, but the Covid pandemic swept the rug from under the band’s feet on that one. And as if that wasn’t enough yet, bassist/vocalist Bobby Edge decided to part ways with the band. So it’s been something of a rough patch, but you wouldn’t be able to tell it listening to ‘Fires Forming,’ which finds the band firing on all cylinders.

We were happy to premiere single ‘Time To Fly,’ which kicks off the EP. It’s a blistering start to a pretty solid EP, with its fast-as-fuck drums and an almost hardcore energy, not unlike something that H2O used to crank out back in the day. Next up is the EP’s other single, ‘Nora,’a straight-up pop-punk song that has all the ‘Dude Ranch’ era Blink-182 feels, especially in the verses. Meanwhile, the chorus begs to be belted along at future shows when we can finally have some of those again.

There is a lot going on in‘Dine Fleisch,’which is basically a melodic punk rock tune played with hardcore intensity. But there’s a ton of other stuff happening as well that I still haven’t wrapped my head around. It all gels together nicely though. Which can be said for the poppier ‘You Spin Me (Right Said Fred)’as well. And well, for closing track ‘Castaway’ as well. It’s like the band is trying to break out of its mold with these three tracks. It doesn’t work quite as well for ‘Castaway’ as it does for the other two, but it should be quite exciting where these guys will go next!

Fires Forming track list:

1. Time To Fly
2. Hey Nora
3. Dine Fleisch
4. You Spin Me (Right Said Fred)
5. Castaway