OK Cool, "Chit Chat"

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The Chicago duo pull the strings taut on their emo-pop debut, adding piano passages, guitar theatrics, and other flourishes to their established college-radio-rock sound.

Two years after Chicago-based duo OK Cool released their last EP Fawn, Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist Waller return with their full-length emo-pop debut, Chit Chat. With these 10 robust, refined, if not also peculiar ballads, the rockers wrap their lyricized self-doubt in a convincing bow of confidence with introspective college-radio-rock songs that both puncture and heal the bubble of femme-fronted DIY punk music. With Chit Chat, OK Cool resize their previously modest expectations with a set of dynamic melodies, catchy harmonies, and emotional pop-punk sensibilities.

As part of the band's evolution from slacker tendencies, the tracklist is notably mostly filled with songs that reach the traditional three-minute mark -- a big deal for the formerly sub-two-minute crew. The extra room allows for newly mastered techniques to shine among all the tender narratives, such as delicate piano passages ("Loop"), neo-alt guitar theatrics ("Jeans (I Get It Now)"), and polished electric-acoustic symmetry ("Last"). Overall, their sound settles calmly with the longer format, with the band exploring their capability to take more space and exercise their full potential.

Joined in the studio by their friends Josh Kayne on drums and Tommy Kessler on guitar, co-producers and co-writers Stiebris and Blomquist Waller pulled the strings taut on this record. The two synced their sonic capabilities through texts and audio messages and other forms of intimate chit-chat (invariably influencing the name of the album) until one soundwave of utterly recognizable emo-pop formed golden peaks over priceless themes of recentered trust.

Deeply sensitive and unnervingly raw, OK Cool drags casual pop music into the intense realms of punk songwriting to harness a unique emo sound worthy of someday landing alongside names like American Football, Joyce Manor, and Built to Spill. Stiebris and Blomquist Waller walk heavy-footed into a valuable vignette of the splintering emo genre with a stunning debut.