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Lessons That We Swear To Keep, the fifth full-length record from Nashville emo-punk outfit Free Throw, opens with a five-second haze of violin-like feedback before it hits the ground at a sprint: a thick, overdriven guitar, drums, and bass all slam in together with tight bursts and a bright guitar lead dancing behind the wall of sound. “It’s so crazy that as you’re aging, somehow things become so complicated,” vocalist and guitarist Cory Castro groans to start the record’s first verse.

In true Free Throw fashion, the record is marked with video game and TV references—Castro’s beloved Pokémon (“Cinnabar Island”), Outer Worlds (“Spacer’s Choice”), and Trailer Park Boys, for starters. But where previous releases centered on a cohesive theme, ready for dramaturgy and narration, Lessons That We Swear To Keep is about something even more immediate and formative, but less discussed: the grayness of everyday life.

1. freethrowband.com