Runner
The Goods
Sick Room
A truly impressive debut album from Chicago’s Runner, full of infectious and raging emo-punk with more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at. Literate and complex yet hard-hitting and in your face, Runner seem to play by different rules than most bands operating in a similar vein, and they’re all the better for it. “Last week I lost my driver’s license, I lost my credit card, and I didn’t even disappear,” Gabi Meszaros frantically barks in “Dark By Five,” which should give you a little taster of the entertaining and sardonic lyrics, almost too quotable for their own good. The music is math punk with a vicious attitude and a spastic’s movements. Energetic and inventive, this may not be the most immediately accessible album of the year, but it’s well worth the price of admission, and fans of everyone from Fugazi to Cursive will find something of interest here.
Sick Room Records: http://www.sickroomrecords.com
