"COPINGMECHANISM - Willow" - A Strong Blitz of Pop-Punk

    To be completely honest, this album was not on my radar at all, so it turned out as quite the pleasant surprised when it dropped. As someone who's favourite genre is pop-punk, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't watching Willow's career with great interest. After all, the singles released, like the opener <maybe> it's my fault was absolutely excellent, and showed that she could do more than just the squeaky clean variety of pop-punk introduced by Machine Gun Kelly. So after piquing my interest, and hearing that the album was actually reviewed well, I decided it was time for me to jump in the fray, and give Willow an honest chance.


Willow - <COPINGMECHANISM>

<maybe> it’s my fault – 90/100 Very strong opener, the lyrics aren’t cringy which is what you’d expect from a Willow/Emo song. I especially like the breakdown at the end and the hook of this song. While not one of my favourite tracks of all time, I find it hard to complain about what this song provides.

Falling Endlessly – 75/100 I like the verses of the song but frankly some parts of the song feel jarring. The way it switches from the verse to the pre-chorus to the chorus is just all over the place, I do like all of the parts separately especially the chorus, but together it feels a little weird. 

curious/furious – 75/100 This song is fine but frankly the chorus is not as strong as I'd like. While the song overall is still enjoyable, I was hoping for something more from the chorus.

WHY? – 75/100 While I do like the chorus to falling endlessly better than anything on this song. I really do enjoy the cool choir effect Willow utilizes, but frankly the verses are my favourite part in this song because the chorus feels lacking at times.

<Coping Mechanism> - 90/100 I really like the pep in this song, the chorus and the verses are what I’d want out of a good pop-punk song. It might be my favourite song off the album. It’s almost anthemic in a sense. Its catchy, fast paced and has good lyrics, what more could you ask for?

Split – 80/100 I really like the chorus on this song, not sure how I feel about the production on it though. Also, the bridge is really random, it threw me off guard the first time I heard it.

hover like a GODDESS – 80/100 I really enjoy this song I like how upbeat it is. Maybe a tad bit too many ohhhhh’s but otherwise another solid song on an album that continues to impress me

ur a <stranger> 65/100- Verses on this song are mildly interesting. The part where she stops singing and just starts talking is something? This song is just clearly missing that oomf that would make it pop out for me.

Perfectly Not Close To Me – 60/100 frankly the feature doesn’t really do anything for me, Willow screaming and doing rough vocals is pretty interesting but Yves Tumour is just kind of there for me?

No Control –  60?/100 A slow track on an album that is relatively very quick and fast. Sadly I feel like it should have been longer, or have had something of more substance? I kind of let it play and then went huh, it finished

BATSHIT! – 80/100 This closer goes hard, and at the very least the album finishes on a strong note.

Score: 75/100

    This album really impressed me. Perhaps I'm doing Willow's musical skill a disservice, after all Wait a Minute and Meet Me at Our Spot are both strong tracks, but in terms of actual albums, I've never been impressed enough by Willows work to really sit down and take it all in. Until now, where I really do hope Willow brings some fresh new blood into a genre that is quickly growing stagnant. I mean she has the "emo" aesthetic everyone seems to enjoy about the 2000's peak era of pop-punk, and she certainly has the music to go along with it. So why not? Why can't Willow be the torchbearer for pop-punk into the 2020's?

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