New Music: Dad Hats – wash. rinse. repeat.

The title track of Nashville-based Dad Hats’ third album is witty, heartfelt, and rather easy to empathise with.

I felt a twinge – or is it cringe – of recognition at the opening lines, as the plea is made for the volume to be turned down, as a serious conversation is being had. It’s a knowing nod to how we can age out of where we are, even though we might not want to accept that or even notice it.

The quintet has harnessed elements of pop-punk and emo to drive that home, but just as it tackles newer, adult subjects like work, jobs, and coffee, the song reverberates with hardcore riffs and punkish percussion, possibly searching for answers in the past. Getting older can make you find yourself looking back in time and worried about the future, and maybe you’re treading water in the present, going round where you’ve been before.

The band accepts that life has changed; they are spouses and parents with responsibilities, but that change doesn’t have an even impact on how we live. “This is a song about making the same mistakes over and over again and knowing it the whole time,” they’ve said.

I guess that means that we get older, and we get wiser, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to be both all the time. It’s a valuable lesson told with real passion here.

Dad Hat’s wash.rinse.repeat album was released on the 23rd of October via Mind Over Matter Records and features some great song titles, such as goth boy scout. You can pick up some cool-looking vinyl editions of the LP on Bandcamp, and it’s also streaming on Spotify. For more album info, head to the band’s Instagram account.