Album Review: Radar State – Strays

Kansas City’s Radar State have some impressive elements in their DNA as they are made up from former members of The Get Up Kids, The Anniversary, Berwanger, The Architects and The Gadjits. The Kansas City outfit signed with LA based label Wiretap Records last year and they are now set to release their debut album, Strays, on the 11th January 2019.  Radar State‘s debut album is my first review from 2019 and it’s got to be said that Strays is a damn fine place to kick start a brand new year of reviews.

Radar State launch you into Strays with the album’s title track, a song that possesses a frantic riff that recalls a hyperactive version of The Weakerthans. Strays continues to deliver a mixture of vintage new wave and punk rock, influences from the sharper end of pop punk along with a solid power pop core, something that ensures that Strays is an album that hits the mark on every single cut. Tracks such as Making Me Feel and Damn The Man are classic power pop, these sit alongside the likes of Defender, Victims Of Fashion and Good Catholic that are vintage punk rock to the bone, this is all delivered with melodic touch and an anthemic singalong quality that permeates every chorus of the thirteen cuts on Strays.

Radar State have delivered an impressive debut album, one where you can hear the ghosts of punks past being brought into the modern age, influences from vintage acts like Elvis Costello and Stiff Little Fingers can be heard in Strays along with a host of classic and contemporary influences, and of course the impressive array of acts that their members are culled from. Radar State‘s debut album indicates that the members haven’t put their past behind them, rather their past experiences have been combined to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Strays can be pre-ordered via Wiretap Records here and via Bandcamp here

Radar State‘s Facebook page can be found here