Where do you go after touring with legendary post-hardcore band La Dispute, years after getting a monumental cosign from Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams? For Pool Kids, the answer is simple: spend five weeks in the studio, experimenting with vocal effects to try and find a balance between polished pop and emo.

After debuting with Music to Practice Safe Sex To in 2018, Florida quartet Pool Kids have shown their knack for intricate emo and math-rock. With Easier Said Than Done, the band’s debut on Epitaph Records that comes after lead singer Christine Goodwyne’s OCD diagnosis, Pool Kids go for a more pop-oriented sound than their previous efforts.

Musically, Easier Said Than Done is a lot tamer and polished than previous efforts. While not necessarily a bad thing, the fuzzy math-rock of $5 Subtweet is replaced with more pop than emo. Singer Goodwyne says that the record is “more pop-leaning”, and lead single, Easier Said Than Done, begins with heavy reverb and vocoder, which is just one instance of the band experimenting to the point that the album feels overworked. With producer Mike Vernon Davis back behind the scenes, it’s certain that Pool Kids deliberately made some of these proudly weird choices to see where they could take their sound.

Goodwyne’s songwriting is sharper than ever, with Easier Said Than Done serving as a coherent snapshot inside the lead singer’s mind. Thematically, the band focuses on the mental toll of constant touring and lingering remnants of old friends. On Tinted Windows, this despair of touring constantly is on full display. Someone has been trying to reach Goodwyne, as they have “been calling every day and every night for a week” and asking if she’d answer “maybe once a week at least”. Yet, the singer begs for “a pass”, saying that she spends Christmas Eve in a black Dodge Caravan. Concurrently, Which is Worse? sees Goodwyne weigh whether it’s worse to forget or remember the past for all its worth.

Speaking of the past, Leona Street is among the tracks where Pool Kids go back to their roots. Effortless guitar riffs introduce the track before Goodwyne recounts her memories as she returns home, imagining how old acquaintances would react to her new life. It's a bold moment of rightful pride with natural confusion born from growing beyond the past. Conversely, Sorry Not Sorry is an unapologetic angst-anthem where the singer sings, "It's not my fault I'm at my best / When I'm six shots deep”.

Without a doubt, the album’s highlight is Dani, where the drums are spaced out to the point that they evoke Slint, and Goodwyne’s cries make the song slowly collapse into itself. Filled with the nostalgia that is the selling point of Easier Said Than Done, the singer reminisces about a past friendship, laden with unobtained closure and betrayal. The song eventually becomes so thick that it organically loosens to a passage that oozes with post-rock flair. Meanwhile, the closer Exit Plan radiates with that warm, yet sad, feeling when it’s your last day doing something. After an intense tour, Goodwyne and her friends “hug goodbye now, one by one” and she can’t help but wonder “If the end is worth the means”.

Easier Said Than Done blends Pool Kids’ emo roots with polished pop, though its overworked production often buries the band’s dense songwriting and raw emotion.

Order Easier Said Than Done by Pool Kids HERE