The new wave of pop-punk and emo artists has been constantly gaining momentum for the past few years, filling the Warped Tour shaped void for those who grew up on artists like My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday and blink-182 while raising a whole new generation of punk kids. Today’s heavy hitters include artists like WILLOW, Royal & The Serpent and Machine Gun Kelly, and easily joining their ranks with his new album today is Sueco. Perfectly blending his early hip-hop leaning sound with a hard-hitting, aggressive edge, Sueco is not only poised to make a name for himself in the scene with It Was Fun While It Lasted, but he’ll easily become one of the genre’s staples.
The thing that sets the album apart from some of Sueco’s peers is it’s authenticity. It Was Fun While It Lasted doesn’t feel like a quick cash grab, banking off of the current hype in the pop-punk/emo scene, but instead it draws from Sueco’s roots in punk. Throughout the album’s twelve songs, Sueco bends genres and weaves in and out different sounds with ease playing off of his strengths in his rapped verses and explosive, guitar heavy choruses.
Hard-hitting anthems like “Paralyzed” and “Loser” perfectly balance emotional tracks like the vulnerable opener, “Today” and acoustic “Hate You Too” while the poppier “It’s Going Good!” and “Drunk Dial” contrast well with “PRIMADONNA”, which leans heavy on hip-hop. And somehow, Sueco manages to pull it off without the album sounding disjointed or meandering, nor does it come off as disingenuous or pandering to nostalgia of former emo kids. Instead, It Was Fun While It Lasted plays from start to finish easily, and will have you singing along at the top of your lungs in no time.