Unicorn Dogs - Closer To Death (2026) Hi-Res

Can someone check whether Unicorn Dogs are doing okay? The band, featuring Jon and Lucas from Charlie Brown Gets a Valentine, spends a surprising amount of time worrying about getting older on their new LP. Running out of time is a recurring theme. There’s a song about a midlife crisis, another about being well past your prime. Fortunately, Jon brought his son Oliver along to make sure everything still moves at pop-punk speed.

I’m only half joking. The music, somewhere between Dear Landlord, The Copyrights, and House Boat, gives all that existential dread a wonderfully self-deprecating twist. It’s hard not to smile when a record this energetic opens with a gang vocal shouting, “This is my midlife crisis!”

Beneath the sarcasm, though, lies a surprisingly empathetic album about aging, burnout, changing technology, corporate indifference, and slowly coming to terms with your own mortality without giving in to cynicism. Unicorn Dogs never wallow. They laugh, worry, crank up the guitars, and keep going. That makes Closer To Death a lot more relatable than its title might suggest.