Static

Honestly, I haven’t been this instantly hooked on a debut album in a really long time. If you miss the days when punk rock actually had hooks—or if you just want something that sounds like The Go-Go’s and The Runaways had a baby that grew up listening to Bikini Kill—you need to stop what you’re doing and put on Taxi Girls’ new record, Static.

Right from the opening track, “Say It!”, you can tell these Montrealers aren’t messing around. The dual-vocal dynamic is incredible—they can flip from these super sweet, catchy pop harmonies to just pure, snarling attitude in a split second. The guitars are loud, the rhythm section is tight as hell, and the hooks just do not quit. “Auto Hysterics” and “Secret Handshake” have been stuck in my head for days, and “Midnight Mixtape” has this perfect, fuzzy new-wave nostalgia to it that makes you want to drive around late at night with the windows down.

But what really made me fall in love with this album is that it’s not just mindless party punk. Beneath all that bratty, effortless swagger, they actually get into some heavy, real-life shit. They talk about self-doubt, mental health, and even postpartum depression, but it never feels like a downer. A track like “Dark Time” perfectly captures that frantic, heavy feeling of anxiety but ends on this incredibly defiant note: “I’m still alive, at least for tonight.” By the time you get to the acoustic closer, “Other Heart,” you just want to hit repeat.

Static is easily one of my favorite releases this summer. It’s raw, it’s honest, it’s incredibly fun, and it doesn’t have a single skip on it. Go listen to it.

My standouts: Say It!, Auto Hysterics, Midnight Mixtape, Dark Time