Slam Dunk: Welcome to Miami

The winter months have been characteristically bleak, so thank heavens for those crazy Canadians making up garage pop outfit Slam Dunk and their new record Welcome to Miami. Mixing the youthful rebellion/abandon formula so readily apparent in bands like Black Lips, FIDLAR, and Wu Lyf with the structuring chops of the E Street Band, they’ve managed to create one of the best “play as loudly as possible” records in recent memory.

Welcome to Miami is the auditory equivalent of a night spent in a blissfully drunken chaotic state, where everything comes flooding back to you in the morning and you regret virtually nothing. Slam Dunk’s lyrics are straightforward, simple, and honest. There’s an unshakable sense these songs aren’t pure creation but rather things that the band has lived. It’s an absolute triumph of a record and has set Slam Dunk up nicely for much bigger things.