We Are The Union formed in Detroit, Michigan in 2005 with a goal to change things for the better in the ska scene. They play a style of pop punk/ska that is fairly original as there is not too many of those bands around. The band’s third full-length album, You Can’t Hide The Sun, will be released via Paper + Plastick Records.
You Can’t Hide The Sun starts with a few fast-paced tracks in “Dust On The Hourglass” and “I Want You To Hit Me As Hard As You Can”. The third track, “Live Like Mitch”, is one of the slower-paced tracks and it kind of ruins the flow of the album because it has an entirely different vibe than the previous songs. Luckily for me, You Can’t Hide The Sun picks up the pace again on the fifth track, “Hellbound & Helpless”, one of the strongest songs on the album. As previously mentioned, it’s upbeat and it also has a very catchy chorus.
The sixth track, “If I Can’t Smoke Or Swear, I’m Fucked”, is my favourite song on You Can’t Hide The Sun because everything about it is impressive. “If I Can’t Smoke Or Swear, I’m Fucked”, is the perfect combination of upbeat drumming and riffing, fast and catchy vocals, a blistering guitar solo, and the well-executed trombone parts that everyone has come to expect from We Are The Union in nearly all of their songs.
After a few solid tracks, the album comes to a close with two very strong tracks, “Delta. Oscar. Whiskey. November.” and “The Ghost That Haunted Me”. “Delta. Oscar. Whiskey. November.” starts off very slowly but it gains momentum after the lengthy intro. As soon as the vocalist belted out “It feels like I’m headed upstream again/Fell back on ‘haven’t’s and ‘has been’s/Should I just give up?/Should I just give in?”, I knew that I was in for a treat. The final track, “The Ghost That Haunted Me”, is another great track and just a perfect way to end the album mainly because the chorus has a very culminating feel to it.
After listening to You Can’t Hide The Sun a few times, I noticed that the band sounds much catchier than on previous releases. On previous releases, there were catchy choruses here and there, but nearly every track on this new release has a catchy chorus or hook. It may seem like the band is relying on being catchy now, however, that is not the case at all. As spectacular as the choruses are, the upbeat verses are just as impressive, sometimes even more so.
If you’re a fan of their previous work, you will definitely like You Can’t Hide The Sun too, and you should check it out when it releases on October 16th. We Are The Union has maintained a fairly similar style on every release and they have improved over the years. That should be exactly what fans of the band would want to hear.
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