Sidewalk Surfers – Growing Up Is A Mess CD (Barhill Records / Cargo Records)

Sidewalk Surfers made a name for themselves in such a short period. This German skatepunk group from Saarbrücken continuously evolves with time and delivers premium punk rock music with each forthcoming release. Perhaps their discography counts only a couple of recordings, but all of these recordings are bursting with quality. Since their formation, the group released a debut full-length Braindead in 2015, Not Me EP in 2018, and a second full-length material named Dinner For Sinners also in 2018. After three years of rehearsing songwriting, and composing, Sidewalk Surfers are more than ready to present a brand new full-length meaningfully named Growing Up Is A Mess.

Growing Up Is A Mess carries eleven brand new compositions plus Anything Anything, a cover song originally performed by Dramarama. This material represents a natural evolvement of the group that was quite promising right from the start, mainly because of the enormous variety of ideas invested in each number. Some older punk rock purists would say this is just another skatepunk-oriented group, one of the many contemporaries on the vast punk rock scene, but Sidewalk Surfers are unquestionably more than that. The way these guys infuse skate punk sound into classic German punk rock, pop-punk, and smaller chunks of old-school hardcore goes beyond comprehension so many times throughout the album. Some segments of their songs even resemble some melodic streetpunk tunes, usually performed by US and UK bands, but this is due to the involvement of the instruments such as electronic organs.

Sidewalk Surfers are levitating between melodies and aggression with such ease. Perhaps the group solely relies upon catchy melodic themes, but there’s a vividly hearable presence of relentless chord progressions. Besides powerful guitar shreds, you may also hear raging lead vocals that are immensely contributing to this mixture. Still, the main focus is on the beforementioned melodies and harmonies, thoughtfully arranged and flawlessly performed with so much sense. The bass guitar lurks around and fulfills an already polyphonous ambiance with beautiful low-end tones. However, these basslines are equally hearable in the mix, and you’ll notice every articulation delivered by the bass guitar from scratch to finish. The drumming performance is undoubtfully insane. You’ll hear outstanding rhythmic acrobatics delivered through series of various rhythmic sequences, accentuations, and drum fills. Each segment is cleverly arranged to fit both the melodic and fierce sides of Sidewalk Surfers.

Growing Up Is A Mess comes on both vinyl and compact disc formats. The vinyl record comes in various eye-peeling vinyl variants such as blue marble and orange marble vinyl. The compact disc comes in an eco-pack sleeve with fully detailed illustrations and all the necessary information about the release. Growing Up Is A Mess is currently up for pre-orders, and the official release date is March 26th. Head over to the Barhill Records web store or Sidewalk Surfers Bandcamp page and pick up this gem in your preferred format.