It’s hard to tell exactly where we are supposed to draw the line between a post-punk band that merely sounds pretty good in execution and one that sounds a little more interesting than just good alone. It isn’t really difficult to mess up a tried and true formula revolving around noodling guitars and angular electric jabs that prop symmetry up into the foreground. You’re basically tracing hallmarks that have been pressed into a deep imprint a hundred times over onto the history of recording tape.

Cola spent their first album, Deep In View, shaking off some of these habitual remnants — especially that from their previous band, with guitarist Tim Darcy and bassist Ben Stidworthy being members of the cult fav Montreal act, Ought. Moving forward now alongside drummer Evan Cartwright, their sophomore follow-up, The Gloss, spurts them through changing shapes in their patterns that register as fully their own design, with the trio leaning into guitar-rock nuances and varying speeds.

They’re steering away from simply brandishing a proper post-punk tutelage that respectfully gets the job done, and toward an alternative to it where instinct reclaims surprise in more pronounced tunefulness in their songs’ choruses, run-on brain trails that hinge upon profound observation, and motion swerves that at times, can even be calmingly delicate. The albatross of past influence has begun to lift, and as Cola obsesses less over perfecting the details, The Gloss pours out into what you’d want to hear more of in today’s guitar-driven indie rock landscape: a band that still sounds sharp when smoothing out its rigid edges, yet discovers an edge that has everything to do with giving their sound its own sense of personality.

Highlights: “Tracing Hallmarks”, “Albatross”, “Nice Try”

Cola’s The Gloss is available now on Fire Talk.

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