How important are Stand Atlantic?
That’s probably a question that’s not been pondered much lately, because the answer isn’t a particularly pleasant one. Back when they had the longest legs of pop-punk’s late-2010s breakthroughs, it was a much different story, but the footprint they’ve left since has been similarly faint. It says a lot when even some of the fanbase will admit to finding 2022’s f.e.a.r missable, an album that, by all accounts, was supposed to herald Stand Atlantic’s boldest and most enterprising chapter yet.
The fact that f.e.a.r was still a pretty good album means it’s hard to fault Stand Atlantic themselves too much for that. Even as earlier adopters as pop-rock’s ongoing suiting-up of harder edges and terse programming, they’ve remained solid (more or less; Pink Elephant is a bit hit-or-miss these days) while drifting deeper into that with each release. WAS HERE, then, reads as a tipping point of sorts, even from initial presentation alone. With that name and artwork of the bloodied band members arranged in a line, the inference is clearly a proper death-and-rebirth event. The last vestiges of ‘traditional’ pop-punk are swallowed up, and replaced by this harder, more unilaterally adventurous Stand Atlantic.
But then that circles back to the notion of importance, and how Stand Atlantic might crave it but still remain out of its reach. In a vacuum, the idea of WAS HERE could indeed seem radical and brand new. Zoom out just a bit, though—as in, to the purview where this exact creative route has skyrocketed in popularity among plenty other Australian pop-rock bands—and impressing on gall alone isn’t quite as nailed on. Wanna seem like you’re pushing the boat out by featuring Polaris on your pop-rock album? Well, get in line—Yours Truly did the same with a Bloom collab on their album just the other day! Rather than breaking out of the lurch into a lane of their own, Stand Atlantic have simply landed in the middle of a brand new uphill climb.
They’re nothing if not tenacious, though. Had they not been, things would’ve likely bottomed out for them at least an album cycle ago. And even if WAS HERE isn’t quite the gimme that Stand Atlantic might have been hoping for, that’s not to say they can’t get there by the end of it. Even on their worst days, Stand Atlantic will charge forth and make you take notice, and with a sound that’s now optimised for that very outcome, WAS HERE will connect by some distance. It’s the same tactic that’s launched Hot Milk around the world and back, as the fundamentals of pop-rock are blown-up, reinforced, and given carte blanche to steamroll in the most unsubtle but exhilarating ways they can muster.
For Stand Atlantic in particular, their take isn’t quite as refined. Songs like KISSIN’ KILLER COBRAS and WAR ZONE are unquestionably heavy in a more bullish way, the former especially in how its individual bits are mashed together. SEX ON THE BEACH is an even more jutting form of that, where shuffling, shard-like beat-work and higher-energy pop-rock have barely any connective tissue to speak of. That invariably feels like the point, though, on an album where Stand Atlantic’s determination is illustrated through the design language of brash, bolshy, uncompromised noise. If the impact of all-caps song titles hadn’t been ground to atoms through overuse already, this would be the instance they’re worn the most proudly.
Hell, when the album does take some overtly poppy swings, they almost sound out of place. The jingling keys topping LOVE U ANYWAY’s light alt-pop and more generally rounded pop-rock of G.A.G aren’t necessarily backslides, but they’re not really keeping pace with WAS HERE as a whole. Saying that, volatile shifts and the visage of unpredictability (without flying too far off the handle, naturally) seems to be this album’s raison d’etre, regardless of specifics. Seismic grunts from the dark maw of bass on GIRL$? A metalcore snarl barely contained until Polaris are given their cue on CRIMINAL? Some approximation of reggae bejeweled in the most tart synth his you’ve ever heard on ROCKSTAR? It’s all fair game, such is the liberated creative palette of Stand Atlantic. It might not all be to taste at all times, but it’s hard to argue that it fits the bill.
And anyway, Bonnie Fraser remains the killer app she’s always been, able to shepherd basically everything here into a workable zone, at the very least. You could almost argue this newfound embrace of loudness was built around Fraser, a vocalist expertly towing the line between shrill incision and clobbering power that works wonders when you’re after a chorus that slices broadly and incessantly. At the end of the day, WAS HERE is still a pop-rock album, with a requirement for monolithic walls of hookery fully intuited for FREAKIN’ OUT and NOSE BLEED and KILL[H]ER, as just some of the premier examples. In terms of a sock to the temple with a blunt instrument, the album rarely misses, and Fraser rarely appears as anything less than the perfect mouthpiece for these songs in particular.
It doesn’t hurt that WAS HERE is a blatantly angry album, either. That’s been on Stand Atlantic’s plate for a little while now, but to see this as the proper let-loose moment—no doubt fuelled in some part by the apathy that’s followed and accumulated around them—is just right. And obviously it’s wide-firing, seldom taking much more than body blows. It’s just what these albums tend to do, and complaining that much is a bit of a lost cause. That said, WAR ZONE being about online haters and the frustration of dealing with them is a shockingly tired shot to take; at least the jibes at older musicians looking to tear down rather than uplift on ROCKSTAR can be funny. But with 17 being Fraser’s frank account at having to live burdened by memories of sexual assault (not to mention its succeeding reprise which hammers in the heartbreaking resignation even deeper), there’s at least one moment of genuine catharsis on WAS HERE, free from obfuscating or deflecting artifice.
Thus, as WAS HERE skirts and skids around its corner of the musical map, trying to take in as much in approach and performance as it can, you do get the impression that Stand Atlantic have achieved everything they set out to. If you’re looking for an album that defines them and sits as a bold new idol to their current phase, it couldn’t be anything other than this. For Stand Atlantic to assail their scene and join their genre compatriots at the summit, WAS HERE will do just that. But if you want to return to the prior discussion of importance…well, that’s a bit trickier right now. Time will tell where this ends up sitting in the field of so, so many similar bands, but early indications—based on just how much raw material Stand Atlantic make use of and chip away at with some form of coherence—are looking rather positive. Maybe that’s a hope against hope, especially with how things have moved from them in the past, but Stand Atlantic are deserving of more than they’ve been subjected to in the past. WAS HERE could indeed by the rebirth they’re searching for.
For fans of: Hot Milk, RedHook, PVRIS
‘WAS HERE’ by Stand Atlantic is released on 23rd August on Hopeless Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
