Everyone needs to chill the fuck out. HAYWIRE haven’t gone pop-punk. But they haven’t not gone pop-punk either. The fears are warranted, though. When you’ve got TURNSTILE chumming it up on the SNL stage in front of a national TV audience with Taylor Swift and Dakota Johnson, the mainstreamification of hardcore can officially be deemed something that has passed a point of no return. Once another cult beloved next-gen band that’s made a name for themselves on relentless touring, blood, sweat, and DIY ethos gets signed up by a huge heavy major label like Roadrunner, expectations are bracing for the worse.

The good news is that HAYWIRE don’t even seem to have any for themselves. By all means, the Boston hardcore punk darlings’ sophomore effort, I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE, certainly sounds bigger and glossed over (courtesy of production by Citizen frontman Mat Kerekes) for mass appeal listening, and packs plenty of punchy of anthems under the power of the chord. They’re not really concerned with breaking any of those “boundaries” that have exhaustingly made up the narrative for every big hardcore release since GLOW ON got the conversation around the scene outside of the gate, however.

A handful of the of 9 tracks that make up the 20-minute listen sound like naturally bolstered extensions of the band’s Oi punk locale roots without having to actually shout “Oi!” A few, like its early singles in “INTERSTATE LOVE AFFAIR” and “SINCERELY YOURS”, make sense of them painting “617” in the style of blink-182’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket design theme on their tour van because of how focused on the hook they are. On that note, the album’s best of the lot in its title track features Nothing, and there’s really nothing about it and its crowd pleaser handclaps that give a hint of the Philly band’s shoegaze nihilism beyond Austin Sparkman shouting along his fear of being alone. All of it remains intensely awesome nonetheless.

Beyond that, HAYWIRE keep their Boston bruiserweight status in check on raging highlights like “FLEX YOUR HEAD” and the Death Threat and Eyes of the Lord feature “FOREVER ALONE”. The only threat to it from the hater contingent might be that Cheyanne Snider — daughter of former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider — shows up on the saccharine situationship jam “TROUBLE IN PARADISE”, but dammit if this isn’t the kind of song you can imagine being some teenager’s entryway into better listening.

Balled up in to an emotional blast about relationships, late night hangs, dark thoughts, and some pretty life-affirming ones, too, I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE is wicked fun hardcore born out of pure intentions. If you accept it at face value for what it is, you’ve just found yourself the year’s most earnest hardcore album. And buy yourself a HAYWIRE shirt while you’re at it. They’re still selling them for dirt cheap despite how big they’ve gotten.

Highlights: “I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE”, “FLEX YOUR HEAD”, “TROUBLE IN PARADISE”

HAYWIRE’s I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE is available now on Roadrunner Records.

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