Copacetic

Album: Copacetic

Artist: Knuckle Puck

Released: July 31, 2015

This album is split in two for me. One side has the songs I want to hear live and jump around in the pit to. The other holds all the songs in my sad boi hours playlist. However, above all it’s a solid album, an iconic album in this scene and an album you should check out if you some how haven’t yet.

Wall to Wall (Depreciation): The line "It must be nice to be so figured out" reminds me of a conversation I overheard in high school. It was between two kids, one was saying how his career was going to be (and how he'd end up with a lot of money). At the time, I knew what I wanted to do, but I still feared things would fall apart and I wouldn't be able to do what I loved (I mean, don't we all feel that way sometimes?) I'll never forget how confident and happy he was. I don't know if he's still on that track now, but it was like a metaphorical slap in the face back then.

Distain: This was the first song I heard off this album and it brings me back to when I was first learning about them. But even in saying that, I don't find myself returning back to it. Yet, I will say the line "but what could you possibly see in a failure like me?" hits a lot harder than any other line in this song. However, even in saying all this, you bet I’ll go off when I hear this song live.

Poison Pen Letter: Man this song. It sure got played this time last year. I ended up playing it a good bit this year too. The line "to self-reflect on the coward/who took the opportunity to turn their back on me" is one of the lines that spoke to me the most. I have considered some people who have hurt me in the last year or so to be "cowards." This was the result of the shady things they did that caused the end of our communication. The other line that gets me is "I've been dodging demons as a pastime." There was a time where I was doing that; where I was scared to go certain places because I might run into someone that I didn't want to see. That’s a pretty dark place to be in, and I’ll do anything to never go back there.

Swing: The line "I'll give them what they wanna see/ a kid lost in his twenty's" will resonate with you no matter what age you are. It's definitely resonated with me, especially in times of not really knowing what I was doing in life. When I hear the line “but I’ve fought the good fight/but I can’t let this one go” I think back to all the things and people I should’ve given up on, but was too hopeful to actually do it.

Ponder: It's a short song- but it's one of my favorites off the album. I think that's because of how I have related to it in the past. I've had "friends" metaphorically curb stomp me before and I've pretended everything was fine to any outsider who passed by. It was a pretty dark time and I think the fact that someone else knew what I was going through made me feel a little less alone.

Evergreen: I don't come back to this one a lot, but every time it comes on you would think it's my favorite song. It's definitely not an underrated song by any means- back in the Tumblr days many lyric edits featured this song. But a lyric that did have meaning to me was the beginning of the chorus. It’s “I’ll lead a life of firsts on foreign soils.” This line represented how I was going to start college this past year. I was going to be at a new place around people I didn’t know. But, considering my high school experience I wasn’t terribly nervous about it. Yet, I think the most important line that we should all take with us is “holding on tightly to the misery will never get me far/ it will never get you far.” I say that because there’s so much truth in that line.

True Contrite: If I'm being honest, I've wanted to call out some people with this song. The lines "you live in a lonely state of denial and self-decay/a living reminder of buried weight you never shed in the first place" are the ones I would use. I know people who are like this, but they seem unaware of it. However, my favorite line from the song is "you learn a lot about honesty, from the dried out leaves of the fallen trees in your life." I just think it's such a powerful line and a great way to start off a song.

Stationary: I don't go back to this song too often but, the line "drunk off boredom and apathy/to have what you have you don't need me" really struck me the last time it played. But after playing it again recently I heard the line “we give our all to things we should not miss/ but the grip is never enough inside of broken fists” and was reminded how much I do love that lyric set. For one, it’s true but it also flows really well.

In Your Crosshairs: This song helped me too- lots of songs off this album did. When Joe Taylor sings "how could you do this to, me?" you hear that emotion, and it's what makes the song. The bridge has to be my favorite part. It builds up until it hits the part when Taylor sings "clarity, clarity." It's just such a powerful moment. But there's so many parts of this song that I love. The lyrics, the instrumentation, the vocals- I could go into detail about it all. I think after coming to this song in a time of need, it has slowly but surely become one of my favorites.

Pretense: "How dare you guilt me for not sticking around/like you ever did for me" is the line that I always go back to. I've been in situations where that line hits it right on its head. A lot of the lyrics hit situations right on the head for me. “I taught myself things you never did” and “I’ll find a face to call my own” are two of them. But both have the common theme of how I realized I had to take things into my own hands to create the change that needed to happen. Whatever I expected that part of my life to be like no longer mattered.

Untitled: My favorite song off this album. This song helped me a lot last year when I was going through some things. The line that really got me the most was "I built my guard up to the clouds/ because of you I've been reduced from high rise windows to stepping stones." A lot of people who I used to trust turned on me and broke a few things on their way out of my life last year. Besides being sad I think I spent a good amount of time being angry at myself for allowing people to take so much from me with out much care. This song helped me work past it. Another part I like is how the lines “I’ll tell you everything is copacetic” from “Ponder” come back at the end. And I cannot forget how after the lyrics end a beautiful instrumental begins. Hearing it on vinyl just makes it sound even better.