Our Hearts Beat For Scarboro
Scarboro's Hate Season asks, are you gonna do somethin’ or just lay there and bleed? Having been left for the buzzards, Scarboro has returned from a loss of self with their heart still intact. After an extended hiatus since Here Comes the Hangover (2017), New York City's hardcore three-piece have released a dense, exploratory record. Recorded and produced by Brian DiMeglio and mastered by Will Yip, Hate Season is a push for the group. What is created is a stimulating narrative that challenges our understanding of the band.
All images courtesy of Scarboro
A stylistic arrangement of rhythm and speed displays their love of 80s hardcore and skate punk, evoking NOFX, Bad Religion, and a skateboard-addicted variation of The Casualties. However, its complexity and experimentation perpetuate a current focus on hardcore punk’s expansiveness, toying with Turnstile and Angle Dust.
You are lulled into a place of solace on a pullout couch of acquaintances. “Hate Season,” which deals with the monster of the gatekeeping fan, or “Turn It Up!,” the band's ‘I love you’ to punk, are familiar yet individualistic perspectives. Yet, the springs snap, catapulting a long-time fan into constant change. Things are given a shake, and what comes out is heavy. The band has wiped the blood from their lips and resaddled their horses.
All images courtesy of Scarboro
Like their song “Kintsugi,” the Japanese art of broken pottery, the band has accepted their cracks and presents them openly. They maintain their punk ethos, but allow themselves the luxury of grace. Reflecting on troubles that gestated in their inactivity.
“Midnight Special,” and “Benzos and Coke” are certainly reflective of those struggles. One deals with intense nighttime anxiety, while the other tackles substance abuse. Scarboro's Shi certainly takes large strides to tackle intense personal issues with “Save Yourself,” an apology to his daughter for generational mental health issues. Whereas “Sin Futuro” is a cogitation on the past, repeating history, and identity.
Yet, Scarboro does not end this album lying in the dirt. Instead, they grip tightly to courage. There is hope, an imagined sunrise on the horizon, that promises restoration with the closing track “Got Soul?”
Truly, an emotional album has been crafted. It maintains a therapeutic expanse for the band and a confident display of their hope-filled, mangled bodies, telling anyone who listens, this is who we are, scars and all. Hate Season is out now, being distributed by Sell The Heart Records in the US and WTF Distro in Europe.
