Hailing from Harrisburg, PA this four piece pop punk band is attempting to make a name for themselves with their first full length album as a band. The band has released two EP's prior to this and their most recent activity, a split with label mates Forever Came Calling. This twelve song album is a breath of fresh air from other pop punk artists. The album starts off with "Porch Light" and some feedback from the guitars and goes into a sweet guitar lick. Next thing you know lead singer Taylor Eby is belting out at the top of his lungs "Waiting for my wake up call, but I feel it's not coming." Just from this moment on you know that Handguns is contending for the pop punk album of the year. The album goes on and each chorus is getting catchier and catchier. All you want to do while listening to this album is go on a drive with your best friends and sing along. The album is a collection of songs full of teenage angst, hatred over your ex girlfriend, the friend that stabbed you in the back and then some songs are just about life on the road. My personal favorite song off the album is "Early Retirement" which is about hating your job and just playing punk songs. The chorus Taylor belts out is "Trying to get fired, so I won't have to quit. Don't want to spend my nights working the graveyard shift. And I'm so sick and tired and I'm over it. I'm calling this early retirement." While it is my favorite song it is also by far the cheesiest song on the album with the angry boss voiceovers. To some people that may be a turn off, but I really enjoyed it since it was something different. Another song that really stood out for me personally was "The War At Home" which is about his broken home. "You were neck deep in the bottle, I was shouting in despair." It hit home because alcoholism runs in my family and I've seen first hand that it can ruin someones life. While Handguns is not new to the pop punk scene to a lot of people, with this album they are going to be getting a bunch of new fans and this may push them to the top of the essential pop punk bands chart.
