Potty Mouth - SNAFU (2019)

Potty Mouth’s scrappy debut full-length, 2013’s Hell Bent, sounds like it was recorded in a practice space, so the upgrade on their sophomore album SNAFU is immediately obvious. The drums are mixed to arena size, and the surfaces gleam with studio polish, thanks in part to engineer Courtney Ballard (Good Charlotte, All Time Low, State Champs). Like pop-punk icons Blink-182, Potty Mouth started out in punk before discovering their knack for glossier, more melodic pop songwriting. SNAFU, arriving after six years of label limbo, aims for a Buddha to Enema of the State leap — they even offer their own “What’s My Age Again?” with “22,” a song about not wanting to “wake up 22.” The opener “Do It Again” evokes the hard-charging “Dumpweed,” and if they aren’t cracking the kinds of juvenile jokes that Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus did, the energy is similar: youthful determination and self-deprecation.