Settle Your Scores - 'Better Luck Tomorrow' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. On the Count Of Three

2. Zero Hour

3. Growing Pains & Throwing Blame

4. Dead Man Stalking

5. Keep Your Chin Up And Your Expectations Down

6. Stuck In The Suburbs

7. Rise / Fall

8. Off & On

9. No Ragrets

10. Your Teeth vs. The Pavement

11. Valar Morghulis

12. My Reason To Come Back Home

Settle Your Scores have blasted in to 2018 with their new album 'Better Luck Tomorrow'. Having recently signed to Sharptone Records the band have a lot to prove. Straight into it with “On The Count Of Three” - the Pop-Punk and Easycore fuelled Settle Your Scores have gone straight to the top from the off. It’s huge sound, fast pace drum patterns and sing along lyrics means this band are on to something good - even at track one.

Now time for what sounds like a Four Years Strong cover but one million times better - “Zero Hour”. Its explosive start radiates everywhere and it proves again lyrics are at the forefront for SYS. They even take this track into a Post-Hardcore style break down - its great!

The next track could be a Neck Deep reference - “Growing Pains & Throwing Blame” is a catchy song title but is it a catchy song? Yes, of course it is! This track has all the correct chemicals for a single - its catchy and sticks in your head, I’ve been humming the chorus all day!

Metal vibes are next in the shape of “Dead Man Stalking” - a track with a bit of punch! The bands passion comes across in every guitar note, everyone word and every drum beat. I didn’t know what was round the corner when first listening to this track and I was proven right when a guitar riff came out of no where!

Swinging back into the Pop-Punk sound we love - “Keep Your Chin And Your Expectations Down” and “Stuck In The Suburbs” which without listening to either track are classic Pop-Punk from just reading the song titles. There is always something a bit different with every Settle Your Scores track - “Stuck In The Suburbs” has an awesome break down towards the end - which I can just imagine being sung by thousands of fans at every show.

Now are you ready to be blown away again? SYS keep us on our toes with the pure heaviness of “Rise/Fall” - it’s a track which has so much energy I’m worried about how the band would carry on playing any song after preforming this live. Also, this needs to be an opening song to their set - this would turn heads.

We ease ourselves back into Pop-Punk with “Off & On” and “No Ragrets”. These feel a bit like filler songs to pad out the album but they are still great tracks but they just don’t fit with the rhythm of the album.

We now have the building tension of “Your Teeth vs. The Pavement” and its back to the evil side of SYS. It’s dirty riffs and smashing drums are something unique, they seem to have already mastered a stadium sound - Settle Your Scores are set are huge things - The tracks slowly pitters out into “Valar Morghulis”. Last but not least, “My Reason To Come Back Home” - an part acoustic track, which is a beautiful finish to an incredible album.

'Better Luck Tomorrow' brings you talent at it’s highest order. Each tracks is made to be heard live, for the intimate experience, whether it be a sing along, something to dance to or a heavy track for the pit crew - Better Luck Tomrrow has something for everyone. This is a prefect example of how to create an album for yourself.