Medications - All Your Favorite People In One Place (Dischord)

With a lineage stretching back to Smart Went Crazy and Faraquet, Medications is well rooted in the Dischord family. So to find the label’s characteristic start-stop rhythms and, dare I say it, “angular” guitar work is really not all that surprising. But what sets Medications apart is just how damn well they can pull all of it off. The instrumentation is quick and tight and Devin Ocampo’s vocals are so good that they could make some of today’s biggest arena superstars recoil in shame. Needless to say, if the absence of your favorite Dischord-related bands has got you down, then go buy this album, put it on “I Am The Harvest” and wait for the pain to melt away.

- Miles Clements