Artist Watch: "Quit" by Versio Curs

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Artist: Versio Curs

Release Title: Quit

Genres: Pop Punk, Indie Rock

Quick Description: Versio Curs have taken a good thing and made it better. The band’s second full-length record delivers dynamic, catchy songs that contain the power of punk and mash it together with the unexpected.

For Fans of: David Bazan, Joyce Manor, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Rozwell Kid, Social Distortion

There are a couple routes that a band can go with their sophomore release. Some completely change direction, some do more of the same, and some level up. We’re big fans of when they level up. And that’s exactly what indie rock/punk band Versio Curs has done with their new record Quit.

Clocking in at just over 25 minutes, the band has added to their confident, brash, sarcastic approach to pop punk with even catchier hooks and adding more dynamic contrast and shifts, while somehow becoming even more jaded, yet poetic lyrically. Though brief, there is plenty to dig into with this album.

These guys know how to take a sad song and make it feel good, infusing it with an infectious energy and alluring arrangements. Songs like “Yeah” demonstrate that classic juxtaposition of a depressing lyric over an uptempo, peppy pop punk track that is begging for those Gen Z kids to jump up and down and pseudo-mosh. It just feels good to yell out, "For fuck's sake, cut it out, cut it out, cut it out.”

And while they still have plenty of high-octane power tracks on the record like the raging “Movies”, the songs that change up styles and tempo show the bands versatility, musicality, and growth. “Nothing For You” slows down the pace, but it’s not the ballad it appears to be. After a brief flirtation with sincerity from singer Kyle Halverson, the short track takes a sharp cosmic turn when a chunking guitar breaks up the stoner dream-state like a revving lawn mower on a Saturday morning.

If their first release How Are You sounded like a band who’s been on the road together for years when they hadn’t played a single show, Quit fast-forwards their career even further with a deft followup that would be any other band’s fourth or fifth. Versio Curs has capitalized on their clear chemistry, taken the writing to new heights, and execute an album that is far more than the sum of its parts.