PAWS – No Grace

Punched out an kicked in the teeth / these boys have done their bleeding” PAWS put their money where there mouths are with the opening line of the title track to their new record No Grace, produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink 182.

No Grace is the result of non-stop touring for over a year. Usually, albums written in the back of tour buses lack drive (pun intended). Fortunately, this cannot be said for PAWS’ third endeavor. The album overflows with unyielding energy and despite its gloomy title, is full of upbeat punk rock tracks.

Video: PAWS – No Grace

There is no defeat in it’s under 30 minutes runtime, only triumph. The angsty shouts that dominated their debut record Cokefloat!  or the gloomy moments that marked their sophomore record, Youth Culture Forever, have entirely disappeared. Instead, No Grace is a manifestation of the same joy and energy the band exhibits on stage. N/A, a song about people coming to their shows,  is a perfect example of that as vocalist Philipp Taylor belts “be what you wanna be“.

We want everyone to feel like we are in it together for those 45 minutes or so

Despite its fun and easygoing surface, No Grace has a lot more to say than grabbing life by the balls. In its 1:26 minutes runtime, Empire State delivers some of the album’s finest lyrics: “I’ve got a writer’s block the size of the Empire State“. This is very much a problem many bands face while being on the road for so long but few would admit, let alone in a song.

Mark Hoppus has done a great job on production duties. Philipp Taylor’s vocal seem to float above the screeching guitars and pounding drums and only rest on the instrumental Salt LakeNo Grace is easily PAWS best offering to date and it’s bound to get you off your feet and turn it up.

No Grace is out on June 17th via FatCat Records.

paws no grace artwork

PAWS - No Grace

Compostion
Lasting Appeal
Lyrics
Production

Outstanding

Deborah Jacobs

Music blogger by night, SEO by day. Started Indie is not a Genre in 2011, will always prefer live music over recordings and intimate pub gigs over arena shows.

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