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At the start of last year, we gushed over Meet Me In Montauk’s underrated ‘Where The Grass Meets The Pavement’, a retrospective thrill-ride that combined mathy-pop with turn-of-the-century emo. For many, it was heralded as one of the best albums of the year.

Fast-forward almost twelve months exactly, and the Fresno, California four-piece are doing it all over again. This time there’s a grittier edge to the sound. The unpredictability in the songwriting has been turned up a notch as they embark on a sound mixing DIY emo-punk with crazed time-signatures. Near-seven minute epic ‘Torcher Myself’ seamlessly and effortlessly combines the two in a whirlwind of styles, throwing in some ‘I Brought You My Bullets…’ era My Chemical Romance for good measure. ‘Who’s The Baby?’ is ferociously weird, filled with whimsical anger.

It’s a concise leap forward from ‘Where The Grass…’ in confidence, daring to break the mold stretched by their previous material. Gloriously feral, ‘Dork Soul’ is an oddity in a sea of overly-produced revivalist emo. Its raw nature holds its own, like the scruffy cousin in the corner of a party who is actually the most interesting person to talk to. ‘Dork Soul’ keeps you on your feet, never relaxing fully into a style yet staying surprisingly cohesive. A beautiful mess.

“This album is something that we’ve obsessed over,” the band explain. “Recording with Ryan (Rings) is always a great experience and we really made it work without stressing about much at all. We literally are 100% a DIY band so we hope everyone likes what we have here, it’s what our lives revolve around and these songs summarize the last years we’ve spent with each other as friends.”

‘Dork Soul’ will be available from the 15th February 2016. Until then, it is available to stream exclusively below:

Dork Soul by meet me in montauk

Meet Me In Montauk will be playing an album release show on Friday 12th February, before supporting the likes of Slingshot Dakota and Pinegrove in the coming months.

Check them out on Facebook.