“Punk rock is about to get really good,” Joel Cusumano (Sob Stories) tweeted shortly after the U.S. election results. I agreed, though I didn’t expect it to arrive this quickly—or be this good. Just two minutes into their third album Earthworks (out now through La Vida Es Un Mus, with Sorry State handling American distribution), Straw Man Army drops the prophetic line: “The cord will snap, it’ll come on fast, America will never last.” By the record’s end, they’ve crafted a manifesto worth rallying behind.

Earthworks closes out the NYC duo’s trilogy following Age of Exile (2020) and SOS (2022), and while it’s punk in attitude and design, Straw Man Army rips open portals to multiple genres. Slap a “post” before jazz, rock, and punk – all fit. The vocals land somewhere between sermon and spoken word, delivering their message with surgical precision. These songs are powered by anger, uncertainty, and dread, yet they’re weapons of resistance rather than surrender. Even seemingly innocent lines like “Can’t fall asleep? Try counting sheep…” speak volumes of truth.

This is a spectacular release, arriving right on time.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp