With pop-punk music seemingly making a huge resurgence into mainstream music and charts in recent years it’s extremely refreshing to see artists and bands branching out into this space with new sounding music. So when it was announced in November 2021 that The Vamps’ vocalist, guitarist and bassist Connor Ball and Cheat Codes’ drummer Sasa Macek were joining forces to create pop-punk band ‘The Lunar Year’, I for one was extremely excited to see what the dynamic duo would cook up together. After the announcement of the bands formation the boys swiftly released their first single, ‘Back for More’ before releasing two more singles, ‘Medicine’ and ‘Boys Will Cry’. After the success of these releases fans were buzzing to hear more and the lads delivered by announcing their debut self-titled EP ‘The Lunar Year’ would be releasing on May 20th.
The six song EP gives a brief but extremely promising insight into what The Lunar Year has to offer with an array of great energetic tracks that put a spring in your step and even some emotional ballads thrown in for good mix. The EP features the trio of previously mentioned singles, alongside new songs; ‘When the Sun Fades’, ‘You Don’t Miss me’ and ‘Nothing’. It’s fairly apparent that the inspiration for this project and EP comes from some of the long great pop-punk musicians of the past and it’s heavily influenced by this, the track ‘Nothing’ even has the lyrics “I’m still young but I miss the days, Listening to Blink and thinking 23 was never gonna get to me” which is a nod to the legendary Blink-182. However, the tracks still manage to sound incredibly unique and the mix of these two talented musicians really forges well throughout the EP. Connor’s lead vocals are also a major highlight on this record and he really stands his own in each and every song. All in all, the debut EP left us beyond satisfied and very excited to see what The Lunar Year has in store for the future and we’re really hoping they can build a long-stand future off the back of this release. The band also announced a string of intimate shows in support of this debut EP release, playing in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London. Tickets to these shows can be found below and make sure you also stream the EP linked below too!
Stream The Lunar Year’s self-titled EP here!
Purchase tickets to the tour here!
Review by Lewis Roberts | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!