The Greatest Generation

The Greatest Generation, the fourth studio album by the Philadelphia pop-punk sextet The Wonder Years, is rife with the nostalgia of growing pains. Lead singer Soupy Campbell had described this recording as the third installment in a trilogy about growing up, but it’s also about the war that he won battling depression. The opening tune, “There, There,” starts softly with Campbell singing in a near-whisper over electric guitar distortion. When the song builds to a crescendo, the band balances restraint with sonic tantrums that at times recall Sunny Day Real Estate's emo-defining 1994 album Diary. The following single, “Passing Through a Screen Door,” exudes a more palpable catharsis as Campbell spits and sneers lyrics that reflect a quarter-life crisis having crept up on him while his friends and cousins got married and started families. The tension in his voice sounds as real as that of the winding guitar interplay between Matt Brasch and Casey Cavaliere. “Dismantling Summer” contrasts quiet and loud parts alongside lyrics that struggle with holding onto the summer while letting go of the past.