Review Summary: you need to get your shit on track.
Combat's
Stay Golden stands out as a rare record for several distinguishing reasons. Rarely does a musical release achieve such potent spunk and verve while simultaneously resonating throughout a scene with the emotional precision that the Baltimore outfit's sophomore effort demonstrates from its very outset.
A cinematic piano introduction seamlessly transitions into the title track, featuring a melody that can only be described as the musical equivalent of vibrant, crystalline rock candy. This immediately clarifies that Combat transcends the archetype of a typical Rosenstock-influenced band. With a sprawling concept even I’ve yet to fully understand almost a year later, Combat’s
Stay Golden is a testament that no matter what said concept is, as long as your ambition is in its right place, it can pay off with a record so intensely and precisely emo in all of the right ways that it doesn't matter how how big your ambitions are; what your feelings mean
can make an impact on those who feel the same, but only if you have the means to deliver the message. Combat proved this could be done with just a turn of the page.
It's not just in
Stay Golden's musicality that separates it from the scene's redundancies, though. Frontperson Holden Wolf’s lyrical abilities, while never groundbreaking in intent, still provide an incredibly fresh and honest perspective in a genre that’s grown stale with repetitive points of view and a near-textbook quality to many modern bands trying to revive the emo sound, whichever version they once knew it as. Plus these lyrics, while potentially being perceivable as juvenile at times, are delivered so sincerely and almost cathartically in ways that keep every track feeling like an individual shot of adrenaline, locking you in for all 14 tracks of the record. While this kind of attention-demanding nature could be a turn off for some listeners, for me it just reaffirms that a record to this level could be achieved with the right voice. Jeff Rosenstock probably won’t make a
WORRY. Part Two: Electric Politicloo and The Wonder Years will probably never top
The Greatest Generation but that’s okay because Combat didn’t need to do that to prove they could outwrite and outperform both of those with a youthful courage not seen since the scene had its heyday in the 90’s.
Stay Golden is a testament to that if you can be yourself in a scene full of self-worship and recycled ideas, you can still make a record that will, like its namesake, stay golden through any amount of time or change. You just have to like actually go ***ing do it, which is much easier said than done.
