Sam Russo – Refuse To Lose EP

Last week Red Scare Industries unexpectedly released Refuse To Lose, a brand new three track EP from Sam Russo that follows on from last years Back To The Party full length. There’s a familiar tale with many albums that were launched just as lockdown started to be rolled out across the globe, unable to tour to promote the album he got, as the press release so delicately put it, “totally boned”. However this is no pity party, the title of the EP should you give you a good idea of what’s coming, this is a defiant return that coincides with a more hopeful feeling that things might start to move back to something approaching normality.

If you were expecting Russo’s latest offering to follow the lead of Back To The Party, a heartfelt album of what could almost be considered ballads, then you’re in for a surprise, the Refuse To Lose EP has a very different feel to his last full length. Whilst the EP does contain three new versions of tracks from Back To The Party, that’s where the similarity ends. To start with Russo isn’t alone on this release, he’s joined by a trio of friends, including Chris Stocking, Garth Vickers and the Alkaline Trio‘s Dan Andriano on bass, something that brings a dark pop punk feel to the opening track, The Basement. This is followed by The Window that keeps the same energy going but brings a revved up folk punk energy into the mix, finally we get Young Heroes, a straight up hit of melodic punk rock that brings Refuse To Lose to an all too premature end.

On Refuse To Lose you have a collection of three tracks that are each listed as being the “Anniversary Mix” of the song, not a welcome anniversary, but an anniversary none the less. With this EP Sam Russo has echoed the hopes of all of us that we can start to move back towards reality. The pandemic might have written off the last unlucky thirteen months, but amidst the constant barrage of grim reality and isolation there remains positivity, a feeling that better days are ahead and one day soon we will meet again in the sweaty grass roots venues that have survived COVID 19.

Refuse To Lose and Back To The Party are both available via Red Scare Industries