Mest - Youth (2024) Hi-Res

Tony Lovato – who formed Mest some 28 years ago – reckons the inspiration for “When We Were Young” came from listening to the songs from when he was a kid in Chicago.

Wherever he found it from, they are making the same timeless pop-punk they were back then. “When We Were Young” and “Hate You Sober” would sit alongside all the music of that time with no problem at all.

The three minutes of “Barely Hanging On” will have you checking what’s your age again – if like me, you were 20 back in the mid-90s, while the acoustics and unashamed pop of “That Saturday” changes the vibe.

“Parking Lot” reflects, and finds some smiles and Mest who have toured with some of the most well-known punk bands of the era – and have Jaret Reddick of Bowling For Soup and Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills on this too – might have grown up, but on this sugar rush of a seven tracker they are still, deep down, the same youth gone wild they always were.