Runkidrun

These Illinois boys have joined the mighty ranks of Tooth and Nail, and have not held back at all with their debut album. No feelings of holding on to the good material to spread thinly between the next few albums — this is full force from the opening moment, full of pop hooks dressed casually in rock’n’roll T-shirts. Singer David Curtis’s vocals have a clear, pop punk/emo thing going on that works well with their sound, and are really a driving force of their sound, as well as the littering of echoing backing vocals and sugar-high back beats. Produced by James Paul Wisner (Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, New Found Glory), This is Who We Are definitely follows the path of epic sing-alongs and a great placement of instruments, which work without sounding messy or at all overdone. Lift your voices! Sing out the melody and remember the sunny days of riding bikes through paddocks and old worn dirt roads of your careless, worry-free past; for this is the soundtrack of innocence and energy rolled into one tightly packaged disc.