Album review: Skating Polly – Chaos County Line

Whoever said youth is wasted on the young clearly never met Skating Polly. We may be wearingly familiar with precocious youngsters securing their 15 minutes of online clout via social media. But Skating Polly came up the hard way. When they first emerged in the pre-TikTok wasteland of 2010, multi-instrumentalist step-siblings Peyton and Kelli – these days supplemented by Kelli’s brother Curtis on drums – were aged 14 and (checks notes) nine fricking years old respectively.

That didn’t stop them being co-signed by various scene legends and, even more impressively, they didn’t burn out either. Instead, over five albums, they’ve noisily built a career as the authentic sound of young punk rock Oklahoma. Chaos County Line arrives five years after their last record, The Make It All Show, meaning Peyton and Kelli are now in their 20s – positively elderly next to the likes of The Linda Lindas. But my, haven’t they grown.

Because Chaos County Line may sprawl over 18 tracks, but it’s never less than straight-to-the-point. So, there are no-nonsense punk detonations (Rabbit Food, Man Out There featuring The Jesus Lizard’s David Yow). There is deceptively twee indie rock (Baby On My Birthday, Booster Seat) and lyrics that are always as excoriatingly honest about themselves as they are with the gaslighters and manipulators that blight their lives.

And there are loads of irresistible pop-grunge anthems, from the brilliantly cutting I’m Sorry For Always Apologizing to the melodic masterpiece – although that melody is perilously close to Deep Blue Something’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s – that is Tiger At The Drugstore.

It comes across like the soundtrack to a great lost ’90s teen movie and, best of all, with its irresistible energy and eminently quotable lyrical couplets ('I have to say you look like Hell / Oh well'), the whole thing’s an absolute blast. After all, growing up doesn’t have to mean growing old.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Veruca Salt, Blake Babies, Nirvana

Chaos County Line is released on June 23 via El Camino