Canadian pop punkers Youth Fountain have released their debut full-length album Letters To Our Former Selves.

Dual vocalists Cody Muraro and Tyler Zanon have worked together for years to craft the album to what it is now, and the results are promising.

The album opens with a combination of two tracks, Helpless/Letters To Our Former Selves, and it immediately kicks off with an energetic pop punk vibe, combining emotional lyrics with strong instrumentals. The lyrics for those tracks represent a yearning for the past, wanting to turn back time and fix things. Reflecting on and letting go of the past is a strong theme for the record, and even the album art sports the window pane (as featured in the band’s music videos), setting the tone appropriately.

A few songs on the album have been released on their 2018 self-titled EP before. This includes the third track Rose Coloured Glass, along with tracks Worried, Complacent, Grinding Teeth and Blooms. These songs already showcased what makes Youth Fountain so interesting: the familiar pop punk sound reminiscent of bands like Seaway and The Wonder Years, combined with a dual male vocals which are just different enough to complement each other.

One song that hasn’t been featured on the EP but that recently got a release as the lead single of the album is Deadlocked. Zanon has acknowledged that Deadlocked is one of the most honest and blunt songs they’ve ever written, the lyrics revolving around battling depression. Subjects like these coming to the foreground seems to be a long-awaited evolving trend within the music industry, where more and more established musicians shock the world by taking their lives and opening up about mental health is becoming the norm rather than the exception. It’s the next generation of emo music in the best sense of the word. It’s a generation self-reflecting.

The song screams: “these days, I can’t stop wishing my life away. Is there anybody out there that could fix me?”. The lyrics hit home, but that’s what Youth Fountain does best. They write about self-identity, loneliness, and mental health, and they make you wanna scream along, dance along, and mosh along.