True Brew

• Track Listing

Vinyl LP pressing. 2015 album by Swedish skate-punk quartet Millencolin, their first album in seven years. Titled to reflect the tight bonds and egalitarian politics that have kept the original band lineup in place for over 20 years, True Brew is a return to the punk roots that inspired the band's formation. Don't call it a throwback, though. While True Brew musically draws upon some of Millencolin's earliest influences like Bad Religion and NOFX through galloping drums and fast, technical riffing, the album lyrically tackles modern sociopolitical issues in ways the band never have before. Take standout track "Sense & Sensibility," which Sarcevic wrote about the growing problem of nationalist and racist political parties in his native Sweden but could be applied to just about anywhere in the Western world. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the album's title track is the kind of positive jam fans have come to expect from Millencolin over the years with a message that is universal.