Teens in Trouble's debut LP What's Mine may be the first album to ever feature an authentic punk rock love song. And by authentic, I mean believable because the second to last track "Playlist" is all about acquiring a customized compilation of songs from the object of your affection. The exchanging of "mix tapes" has been a time-honored tradition amongst twitterpated punks since the invention of the dual tape deck in an attempt to crack the code of their paramore's love language (or at least get a sense for what kind of stuff they listen to while high). I guess asking someone for a Spotify playlist is the 2024 version of this diminished but steadily observed custom. That's just the first example of vocalist and guitarist Lizzie Killian's approach to these songs. More so than most, the subject matter on What's Mine tends towards the baldly biographical, often leaving me with the impression that I'm literally seeing scenes from her life illuminated through song. Now, most people's lives are tedious, and it would be highly embarrassing for nearly anyone to expose their innermost thoughts to any degree of depth, but most people also don't have the guitar chops that Lizzie does either. This brings us to what is easily the most excellent aspect of this album: Lizzie's guitar work and ability to write some enthralling hooks. Even when the lyrics can be a little cringe, the hooks that accompany them absolutely absolve the whole affair of its perceived sins. The prickly warning of the opening track, "You Don't Want To Mess With Me," is wound around a razory crock-crew-shaped groove that collects emotional tension like a lint trap balling up flammable debris until it's ready to ignite in a blaze of vibrant glory- a blowup that is equally matched by the slinky desert riffs that erupt into full-blown static sandstorms on the off-kilter, heart-stroke hallucination "In My Dreams." Then there are the more unexpected turns, such as the alternating country-surf riff spindrift of "Brave" and the gritty skate-punk strut of "Sick" with its bunchy, coiled chord combinations that snake around a brightly textured groove like venomous jewelry. It's Lizzie's world, and you're just lucky to share it with her and her guitar.
