Home Front is even more Home Front-y than they were before and that’s a good thing. The genius of Home Front’s initial genesis was the combination of stomping oi! with the lesser celebrated side of ‘80s alt. There’s a little bit more Tears for Fears here than there is Bauhaus or Joy Division- though JD, or maybe New Order, does make its appearance known.

On Watch It Die the band keeps their boot boy thwomp but leans more into the huge melancholy heard on songs from the big chair and welcome to the pleasure dome. “Light sleeper” has both a distinctly ‘80s compu-buzz and massive, arena style chorus sing along. This is why everyone in the punk scene loves this band right now and they should. They’re catchy, but not soft. They’ poppy, but not brainless. Also, they balance metaphysical contemplation- “we’re born alone / we die alone /don’t ever thing you have to live alone”- with emotional reflection and some straight up politics. That is, where there might be a temptation to soften up on politicking, they double down on “New Madness,” which is hard not to view in light of… ugh… Trump.

Still, it’s probably the emotional tracks that hit the hardest here. “Between the waves” can go toe to toe with any 1985 MTV alt hit you can find. It paints a forlorn picture of growing up and the destruction of relationships. You can imagine a teen or young adult sitting in a car looking out the window with a lonely look plastered on her or his face. But really, the song would pretty much hit anyone in the gut, at least at a few points in one’s life.

Home Front have figured out a way to further draw out what makes them special and have used those elements to create an album, that perhaps against the odds, surpassed the emotional push of Games of Power. Early buzz is more often a guillotine for a band than a platform, but here, Home Front continues to rise- and it’s probably because their songs are as relatable as they are catchy… even though they are kind of sad, too.