Album Review: The Curse of Public Opinion by Public Opinion
Album artwork for The Curse of Public Opinion by Public Opinion
Music is about expression, it’s about letting it all out and getting things off your chest. That’s where a band like Public Opinion shines. Coming together through the Denver, Colorado hardcore scene, they have brought together lessons learnt from cutting their teeth in various bands and channeled that into writing loud and proud rock ‘n’ roll songs. The mastermind behind the band is Kevin Hart, who writes the songs before bringing them to the rest of the band. The songs feel like him venting and pair that with a stellar group of musicians to add their own personality to each track, it results in some of the slickest punk rock since the 2000s.
“The Curse of Public Opinion” is the band’s sophomore record. Last year, they released the fantastic EP “Perpetual Motion Machine”, which was a taste of what was yet to come, with an all-too-perfectly fitting feature from Patrick Kindlon of Drug Church, it felt like a passing of the torch from one pissed-off vocalist to another. This new record was recorded with Brett Romnes (Anxious, I Am The Avalanche, Hot Mulligan) and immediately it was apparent the band had leveled up. These songs sound massive and along with that there’s a real confidence that comes through in the recording.
Kicking off the record is instant earworm Balloon Man Running. It’s a total in-your-face banger. You could easily be confused that you’re listening to an arena rock band. The instrumentation is so rich and with bright guitars dancing along the track, paired with Hart’s signature snarl, they’re such a well oiled machine at this point, and it sets us up perfectly for what the rest of the record has in store.
Flowers By Irene wastes no time clocking in at just under 90 seconds but keeps up the energy, reminiscent of the garage rock revival. If the opener took us to the arena, this has transported us right back into the sweaty venues we all know and love, and you can’t help but dance along. I Pay Everyone I Still Talk To switches up the vibes with more of a pop-punk feel. The chorus is huge with the bass front and centre running a descending line which moves opposite to the guitars. This quite neatly matches the line “Pick up the goddamn phone, Say that I will but I won't”, which throughout the track describes a frustration with not following through on something, or contradicting yourself. This carries on to Lucky Me, which follows Hart’s internal monologue which is even more self-critical. Opening with just drums and the bass guitar nodding along, it puts the self-deprecating lines prominent with the repeating “all my fault, all my fault, it’s all my fault.”
Across this record they muse on the mundane, and that's not to say that the content is uninteresting or unimportant. Quite the opposite, it's all incredibly sincere and relatable. It tackles the daily struggles that anyone can find themselves in, whether it be your job or your relationships, and throughout this record there are sing-alongs that aren’t just catchy, they resonate with you.
Now this record isn’t all just big riffs and swagger, there are moments where it slows down and allows things to get vulnerable. Enhancement Talent with its tongue-in-cheek title, although still self-deprecating, is a term in pro wrestling for wrestlers that are booked to lose against another wrestler to give them further popularity and credibility. In this context, it’s a really brutal way to think of yourself and what you might bring to a relationship, like you’re a stepping stone from them to move onto someone better. The song feels like an inner turmoil, pining over a love lost, and kind of mentally self-sabotaging yourself from getting out there and trying again. It’s really effective in how earnest it is, it’s clear throughout the album that there’s a vulnerability that cracks through the cockiness, and those moments are some of Public Opinions real strengths.
Perhaps the greatest departure in sound is Epitaph, which is a brief pause where they contemplate what comes after you die: “What'll happen to all my stuff? Who's gonna cover my shift in the morning?“ It’s a real lesson in less is more, with just a guitar and piano carrying the melody, the focal point being Hart’s words, perhaps unassuming on first listen, but it’s one that has really stuck and became a personal highlight, a real strength of a band is knowing when to be loud, and especially when to cut back, this track offers the perfect break before the triumphant final few tracks.
The penultimate track, Modern Convenience, is a re-recording put out during their days on Convulse Records. It’s clearly a song that the band are particularly proud of, or perhaps it’s one that didn’t get to shine the way they felt it ought to. Getting to hear it with this level of production completely reinvents the track, and highlights elements that weren’t so apparent before. To top that off, it features the vocals of Vinnie Caruana of I am The Avalanche, someone whose influence is all over Public Opinion. If there was such a thing as a victory lap on a record where they are so hard on themselves, this would be it and it's brilliant.
Not necessarily ending on a positive high, but the title track, The Curse of Public Opinion, feels like a culmination of the sounds that have been explored in just 23 minutes, a whistle-stop tour through punk, garage rock, a bit of pop-punk thrown in, as well as flourishes of their hardcore DNA, this track is a fired up banger as they mull over the frustrations of trying and failing and trying again to get going as a rock band in 2026.
Throughout the record there has been a thought of what actually IS “The Curse of Public Opinion?” Is it a commentary on culture, or community? What becomes apparent in the finale is that yes it can be, but the real “curse” is the band, as they ruminate on the different trials and tribulations they’ve faced trying to stay afloat in a world that is fighting against you. Whilst there is frustration, there is a feeling of acceptance. “It’s landing whenever it’s landing, No use in being demanding again.” Trying to play the algorithm game is a fool's errand, and it's refreshing to hear a band, not admit defeat, but instead simply prioritise playing to their strengths and making the art they want to make.
Public Opinion have created a record that isn’t some big swing out of left field, instead they’ve refined their sound and created something with endless replayability, it’s no nonsense punk rock chock-full of cathartic singalongs but there’s even more to offer in the tracks if you want to dig deeper.
FFO: Drug Church, Militarie Gun, I Am The Avalanche
SCORE: 8/10
The Curse of Public Opinion is out now on all streaming platforms via SideOneDummy Records
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