Stand Atlantic F.E.A.R.

On their third full-length, the Sydney quartet Stand Atlantic keep redefining the boundaries of pop-punk, using their guitar-bass-drums-vocals set-up as a launching point for maximalist misfit anthems. Tracks like the speedy poison-pen letter to anxiety “van gogh” and the self-loathing “don’t talk [to me]” operate in classic pop-punk mode, using the “three chords and the truth” ideal to tackle heavy problems with bravado and wit. Elsewhere, f.e.a.r. gets lyrically meta and musically grandiose: “dumb”, a collaboration with Atlanta genre bender Tom The Mail Man, takes on the frustrations of being musically pigeonholed with funk bass and f-bombs, while the larger-than-life “cabin fever” throws in trap drums, strings and even a cameo from vocalist Bonnie Fraser’s mum as it rages against the major-label machine.