Never Hungover Again [Bonus CD]

Joyce Manor's first album for Epitaph is also their first album to be recorded in a nice studio and it's mixed by indie rock lifer Tony Hoffer, who has worked for Belle and Sebastian and Beck, to name two big artists. Those are the facts that might scare away fans of the California emo revivalists, since they don't really fit in with the decidedly lo-fi, D.I.Y. approach the group took on its first two albums (2010's Joyce Manor and 2012's Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired). Fear not, cautious fan base, because Never Hungover Again isn't an industry-fueled sellout or any kind of dilution of their hearts-in-throats-and-on-sleeves pop-punk at all. It's the same kind of short (20 minutes), intense, and bleedingly emotional album they had made before, only more focused and more powerful now. Most noticeably, the lo-fi interludes that sapped a little of Of All Things' impact are gone and all the songs here have soaring choruses and a hard-charging energy that is breathless at times. The g