Tess & The Details – Runaway

San Francisco’s Tess & The Details are set to release their debut album, Runaway, on the 14th November via Engineer Records & Double Helix Records, the latter being an appropriate label for a band who have some of the biggest and best punk bands of recent years embedded deep in their DNA. Tess & The Details draw from contemporaries like The Bombpops, Bad Cop/Bad Cop and For I Am as well as heavyweights such as Alkaline Trio, No Doubt and Green Day. I say biggest and best as whilst Tess & The Details still have that raw punk edge we all crave, this is a band with a sound that could / should see them breaking big, you read it here first.

Take the opening track, Blondies Gonna Die, as a prime example, fast and melodic punk with the honeyed rasp of of lead singer Tess Stevens bringing the whole package together. Without time to draw breath we’re straight into lead single, Canary, that brings a slightly darker tone, one that recalls the glory days of the much missed Tilt. The album’s title track hints at bigger things and brings a more grandiose quality into play, whilst this hints at bigger stages to come it’s still a relentless driven slab of punk rock that’s just crying out for a a sea of fists to be raised.

Take A Number takes us back into their frantic side, two and half minutes of pure speedy punk rock that takes it cue from the early days of the Fat Wreck Chords stable, but it’s on tracks like the slower and darker Emergency that Stevens vocals truly shine as the track gradually builds in ferocity. An Unnatural Disaster follows, the only track that crosses the three minute mark, albeit by a mere 9 seconds, that brings a glorious moment that draws from the dawn of pop punk. In contrast Mani brings a chugging riff that breaks into a chorus that is destined to rattle round your cranium for the foreseeable future.

And the hits just keep coming, Jester is another dose of perfect infectious punk rock with a riff that has a slight nod to the early days of The Misfits, but without the horror obsession. This brings us to the album’s finest moment, Johnny, that still has punk rock chops but with a smooth vocal that is delivered in the manner of a torch song, just give it a spin and you’ll see what I mean, probably. The album rounds out with the sublime trifecta that showcases the bands range, from the melodic punk rock of Perfect World, the down and dirty rock of No Grave and closer, Saint Of Purgatory, that signs Runaway off with a heavyweight riff that revists their dramatic tendencies as it builds to it’s finalè

Runaway is a smorgasbord of punk rock, Tess & The Details have carefully selected the best elements from the last few decades and served it up with their own distinct twist. It must be said that Tess Stevens vocals are sublime, for me they are up there with Millie Manders (Millie Manders & The Shut Up) and Hanne Terweduwe (For I Am), and if you’re a fan of either of those two bands then just order this, in fact just order it anyway. Tess & The Details debut album is a thing of beauty, whilst the vocals are the obvious draw I’m not casting any shade on The Details, as their soundtrack provides the muscle on what is one of the best debut albums you’ll hear this year.

You can pre-order Runaway on vinyl in North America through Double Helix Records, in Europe via Engineer Records and you can pre-order / add via Spotify and Apple Music here.