Portland, Maine indie-punk/rock trio theWorst is at their best on their recently released sophomore album, Yes Regrets. After playing on a constant loop, it’s no surprise that Yes Regrets is LOUD WOMEN’s album of the month.
Yes Regrets is a musical diary of vocalist/guitarist Brooke Binion’s road to recovery from drug and alcohol recovery and the struggles with bipolar disorder and manic episodes.
“This album was written over a very critical couple of years for me, so I wanted to have the album flow chronologically. The first couple tracks were written before I got sober, then the middle of the record was written while I was in the process of getting sober, and then the end is sort of where I’m at now.”
Brooke Binion
theWorst’s debut album, Jane Doe Embryo (2017) is heavy and fast-paced, the blueprint to theWorst’s sound. But the band takes their sound to the next level by becoming more introspective.
“Jane Doe Embryo was made up of the first songs I’d ever really written, and I tried to make it more poetic and universal. This new record is so much more personal. I wanted it to be more direct, less metaphorical, to really capture those feelings.”
Brooke Binion
Album opener ‘Blacksheepish’ is a strong start to Yes Regrets. Energetic and emotional, ‘Blacksheepish’ is a tribute to a friend lost to suicide.
The following tracks ‘Serves You Rotten’ and ‘Couldn’t Stay Away’ have an upbeat grunge bop undertone that make you feel like you’re at a basement show, dancing along.
Tracks ‘Hurt Forever’ and ‘Monomania’ touch on Binion’s bipolar struggles and the manic episodes. ‘Hurt Forever’ is the album’s heart. It captures the feeling of 90s grunge and the accompanying video would be a double feature event with Nirvana’s video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
“When you’re manic, it’s like your brain is making decisions that you don’t agree with but you’re doing them anyway,” says Binion. “There’s a lot of impulsivity and that feeling of knowing something is a terrible idea but suddenly you’re doing it.”
Brooke Binion
On title track ‘Yes Regrets’ is theWorst’s peak on the album. While ‘Hurt Forever’ is the heart of the album, ‘Yes Regrets’ is the backbone. The band experiments with tone and is a throwback to the noisy early 2000s New Jersey emo scene.
Did I fail to say I’m sorry
Finish me, there’s nothing left
But I fought the whole way down
Yes Regrets is theWorst laying everything out and working through tough moments. Emo and grunge elements weave around the band’s signature unfiltered punk/rock riffs and raw vocals. You can’t rewrite your past but you can learn from mistakes and certain situations.
“There’s some stuff I wish I could re-do, but I can’t and that’s okay. I just hope people realize that even if you don’t have that hardcore ‘no regrets’ attitude, that’s alright. You might feel bad about some things that happen, but you can always still move forward from it.”
Brooke Binion
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