Killradio - Election Year (2020)

Call it the October un-surprise.

KillRadio, the unabashedly political L.A. punk-rockers who reunited last summer after more than a decade away, have uncorked their feelings about the current state of affairs.

The band today released the album “Election Year,” their first full-length since 2008 and the follow-up to their 2019 EP “This Land Is Our Land?”

Inspired by, to cop one of their song titles, a “Match With an Orange Top,” they flex their musical muscle to send volleys across the aisle. It’s no secret which side of the room they’re on, but anybody can find some nonpartisan truth in the chorus to “Election Year, Pt. 1”: “How we spend our vote / is how we use our voice / How we spend our days / is how we make a choice.”

KillRadio’s slash-and-burn rock sounds rightfully angry, but their message isn’t all strident. As they say in their plea for coalition-building “Future’s Best Investment,” “When acrimony reigns, nobody wins.”