The new (mini)album from Toronto’s Weak Hands is right up my alley. Catchy, high-energy indie punk anthems with relatable lyrics and a kickass singer. While listening to opener Massey Sign, a song that uses the sing-your-heart-out-over-a-guitar-riff-only-then-let-the-rest-of-the-band-kick-in approach very effectively, I had to check if Weak Hands wasn’t a new band from Stella Maxwell of Cruiserweight. Nope, Nat Manzocco just has an uncanny similarity. To my ears, at least.

Right before turning thirty, Manzocco started taking songwriting seriously, and based on Massey Sign and the rest of the material on We Can’t!, she has become seriously good at it. Take a song like Grow A Spine. Manzocco delivers the opening verse with an almost ’60s pop sensibility, but the words could hardly be more 2026:

You can call me whenever
Cause my phone’s always on
I stare at it forever
Fry my eyes until dawn
Nothing’s lost, gained or ventured
When you’re very online
It’s much easier than having to grow a spine

And then the song turns into a punky alt-pop hit, and it is far from the only great moment on We Can’t. Throughout the record, Manzocco draws inspiration from a broken relationship, studying it from every angle and writing anthems for all of us to enjoy the mess.

Out now on cassette!

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp