Downtown Boys makes it clear from the outset of Cost Of Living, the Providence punk band's debut for Sub Pop: "A wall is a wall / A wall is just a wall / And nothing more at all." That simple defiance, a word repeated until it becomes meaningless, is at the heart of Downtown Boys' mission: to reject boundaries that separate our humanity.
But with that mission also comes more dynamic songwriting — and heavier production from Fugazi's Guy Picciotto. This is not the ragtag sax-punk band from the self-titled debut or even 2015's Full Communism. The horn arrangements bustle like a punked-out soul section, as does the call-and-response with singer Victoria Ruiz. Joey La Neve DeFrancesco's ringing guitar melodies give more space to the driving rhythm section that want to burst through the very walls that Assata Shakur's poem "i believe in living," which inspires "A Wall," asserts can so easily be broken down.
Cost Of Living comes out August 11 on Sub Pop. Track list below:
"A Wall"
"I'm Enough (I Want More)"
"Somos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas)"
"Promissory Note"
"Because You"
"Violent Complicity"
"It Can't Wait"
"Tonta"
"Heroes (Interlude)"
"Lips That Bite"
"Clara Rancia"
"Bulletproof (Outro)"
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