Public Opinion

Sometimes the only way to feel better is to spend some time feeling bad. Countless albums have provided the soundtrack for picking yourself back up, but Public Opinion are there for when you’re getting kicked while you’re down. Their sophomore album, the cheekily titled The Curse of Public Opinion, is a ten-song, 23-minute ode to frustration and disappointment–all set to some of the catchiest punk songs you’ll hear this year. Who knew swallowing a bitter pill could be this fun? The Curse of Public Opinion isn’t the first time vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hart–along with his bandmates, guitarist Kevin Johnson and bassist Sebastian Stanley–have felt like they might be under a cloud of negativity. In fact, they might have been forged in it. The band emerged from the Denver, CO, hardcore scene in 2020 as an outlet for Hart’s existential anger, after several years of bad luck and life upheaval that turned out to only be the beginning. They released their debut album, 2024’s Painted On Smile–which reckoned with the passing of family members and every day existential dread–all while continuing to navigate the one-step-forward-two-steps-back nature of pursuing a career in music. “With a lot of creative things, or with life in general, there’s this constant moving of the goal posts,” Hart explains. “Maybe you accomplish something or have some personal growth, but then you realize you still have a lot of the same problems you always have.”