Thoughts & Prayers [LP]

Vinyl LP pressing. For more than 25 years, Good Riddance has written tuneful punk anthems that take on injustice in all forms, from social to political to personal. That spirit drove classic albums like For God and Country, A Comprehensive Guide to Moderne Rebellion, and Ballads from the Revolution, and it carries through to the new Thoughts and Prayers, Good Riddance's second album since reforming in 2012. As a voice of resistance through four presidential administrations, Good Riddance seems well-suited for these fraught times - but don't expect a bunch of obvious anti-45 screeds. But Thoughts and Prayers isn't without light. Opener "Edmund Pettus Bridge" imagines "one billion hearts entwined in revolution," and "Wish You Well" boasts one of the catchiest choruses of Good Riddance's long discography. Produced and mixed once again by Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore - who've helmed every Good Riddance album since 1999's Operation Phoenix - Thoughts and Prayers boasts the band's signature sound of highly melodic, fast-paced punk, but with a new wrinkle: a song sung mostly in Spanish, "Lo Que Sucede."