No Good With Secrets is another project from Madison James of New Jersey emo marauders Ogbert The Nerd. They dropped debut album In Stereo last summer, and today they’re already back with news of LP2. Another Side boasts genre tags like “jangle punk” and “tweemo,” and its rad lead single “Turn Back Over” is a sugar-rush power-pop song struck to the heart with melancholia.

“Nothing’s ever that important/ Nothing has to stay the same,” James sings. “We go through our days the same way we used to/ We have a heart attack or two from things that don’t exist/ And waste away the days just never getting over it.” I love the next line: “Traffic doesn’t feel the same when you aren’t on the other side.” Talk of the check engine light ensues.

A note from James:

This album is me placing my feet in the concrete and letting it dry. No bullshit. Just the best shit I can give you, the listener, my friends, my lovers, all alike; people who deserve the best. This record is about really fun experiences that aren’t very good for you, all consuming heartbreak, shitty cars with flooded engines, rental homes with busted doors, being unable to read subway maps, cell phones, and the aching love in friendship and seeing through the bullshit for it. This is a record that takes place in the eastern half of America and every specific street I hate driving down or go out of my way to. This record is every interstate I’ve spent too much time on. This record is as confused as it needs to be and falls and stumbles until it figures it out. This record is the process of growing up and taking what it wants with it. It’s everything I want to say to someone who wants to hear it.

That being said, I hope you love it as much as I loved making it.

Thanks for listening.

Your friend,
Madison

Below, hear “Turn Back Over,” and you might as well check out In Stereo while you’re at it.

Another Side is out 5/10 on Bored Science.