Alex Kasznel & the Board of Directors - Flightless (2025)

New album: Alex Kasznel & the Board of Directors - Flightless
High-energy songs for low moments and hopeful turns. It’s admirable how high-flyers Alex Kasznel (guitar, keys, vocals), Heather Alene (bass, vocals), and Andrew Gable (drums) continue to drop catchy and sensitive pop-punk tunes. The Cincinnati, Ohio trio is back with their next full-length, Flightless, featuring twelve songs loosely centered around a theme of feeling trapped, but with a way out in sight—a cathartic shout from inside the cage.

The lyrics here are as idiosyncratic (“The creases in my pillowcase // Drew a map onto my sleeping face // Faint pink lines that made the shape of Texas // Emily, you were my muse”—from The Shape of Texas) as they are intelligent (“Your files are buried deep inside my hard drive // ​​Behind my thoughts just like a watermark // And even though you’re gone I sense your presence // My brain’s the ocean and you are the shark”—from How to Kill a Ghost), sharp, profound, and tender, set to music that varies in pace and intensity. The vocals are distinctive, the riffs are tight, the drums punch hard, energetic and infectious. Existential, but still fun.