Stoke Signals are an emo-punk hybrid. The band bears most of the marks of the midtempo, singalong gruff-vocal punk I enjoy. But with some song structure and lyrical patterns of the far more popular emo-rock style that took off some 20 years ago. And: live by emo, die by emo. It’s a genre that puts the lyrics front and center and first impressions matter.
The introductory lyrics from Stoke Signals on their first album are, “I might get hit by a bus tomorrow…and none of that matters if you don’t get sad when I’m turned into roadkill.”
That’s pretty dramatic, but the band does tone it down after that. Sure, there are a few moments where I’m pulled out of the zone by the lyrics, but the record is mostly forward-driving, singalong style punk. “Take the Wheel,” “Hook Line and Sinking,” and “Holy Fangs” are the songs that stand out the most to me. “Holy Fangs” is a song about the band’s formation, in a sense, as they sprung from the ashes of Promise Me This and Holy Fangs. It’s upbeat and earworm and while the song has personal meaning for the band, the language is universal with a refrain of “I am 100 stories high.” You didn’t have to live it to feel it. Then it concludes with some big whoa-ohs, just to drive that earworm further into your skull. At the band’s best I’d call them emo with gang vocals. At other points, the songs get more explorative both lyrically and musically. “Collapse,” for example, has big winding guitars that are almost post-rock like as they crescendo.
To grab a snippet from “Take the Wheel,” “The cigarettes make dying fun.” Perhaps it’s just personal preference, but the connection is stronger when the band is pushing forward instead of relying too heavily on first-person POV self-deprecation. “Neon” strikes a good chord in the middle of the two angles, led by energetic drums that are somewhat forward in the mix. Ultimately, I think I want the music/melody to drive a song, not the lyrics. Only Stoke Signals can tell you their opinion on that topic, but I think the band is most successful when that happens.
