Amateur Recommendation Hour: Nothing I Write You Can Change What You've Been Through

Today’s recommendation is a headbanger. Bring your Tylenol. This is actually one of my favorite rock albums of the 2010s mostly due to the fact that it is in a genre that, unfortunately, is mostly dead at least in the mainstream. Dedicated bands like these lads are keeping it on life support and are doing a damn good job at that. Really looking forward to see how far they’re able to push on with it.

Nothing I Write You Can Change What You’ve Been Through by Trash Boat is somewhat of a blast from the past in the best possible way to those of us who wish the 2000s never ended (like me). Melodic skate punk raw and gritty thanks to Tobi Duncan’s gruff and EXTREMELY English voice. Basically if you’re like me and will be listening to blink-182 and 2000s Fall Out Boy for the rest of your life you’ll love this album I promise.

I believe this album to be about something that I think a lot of us will be able to identify with, inspired by some of Duncan’s life experiences. Being introspective about the things we’ve been through, finding meaning and personal growth in our painful experiences, and realizing that life is worth living, no matter how much it hurts to be alive. Don’t give up. Very powerful stuff delivered through the sounds of better cultural times.

Very often I find myself reminiscing about the culture of the 2000s and pop punk is at the forefront of that nostalgia. If it was up to me we’d have a cultural revolution in which every year for the rest of time was lived like 2007. Thank goodness it’s not up to me right? So many bemoan the “angst” that comes with pop-punk and other similar sub-genres of rock as “juvenile” or something to that effect. Writing it off as something that they’ve “grown out of” which admittedly makes me a bit sad. So we’ve grown out of expressing our emotions and/or pain in an honest fashion and would rather be fake like modern pop music?

I’ve gotten a bit carrier away with the editorializing here so I’ll end it on this: If you are the kind of person who enjoys the sounds of that era, this is a no-brainer. For everyone else maybe it’s time to “reconnect with your childhood” and give this a listen.