Album Reviews
From the moment the drums kick in on opener “Twist My Tongue”, quickly followed by buzzing guitars and a solid bass line, you know you are in for a good time with the follow-up to 2023’s Cheap Grills. While Sincere Engineer has been around for quite some years already, I somehow never got quite into them. There was already a lot to like, but the vocals always threw me off. On Probable Claws however, the band fronted by Deanna Belos is doing everything right and her singing is just spot-on this time around.
According to Belos, they set out to make a straight forward pop punk album and that’s exactly what they ended up with. Cuts like “Pilot Light” and “Fast Forward, Rewind” are bursting at the seams with energy and solid melodies, but they will just as well take it down a notch on “LOL,” with a spoken word part that fits in perfectly.
A theme that is touched upon a bunch of times throughout Probable Claws is being uncomfortable with how quickly time passes. But with the band burning through 11 songs in 40 minutes with reckless abandon, Sincere Engineer makes sure you don't waste a single second of it. Probable Claws is a lean, cathartic blast of pop punk that turns anxiety into pure momentum.
Probable Claws track listing:
- Twist My Tongue
- Cooler
- Pilot Light
- DNA
- LOL
- Fast Forward, Rewind
- Hallucinogenic
- Arborvitae Evergreen
- The Perfect Crime
- Settle Up with Your Downfall
- Dynamite
Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.
