V3RM0NT is a look inwards. For lead vocalist Jonah Wakefield, the record is a provocative and vulnerable coming of age story that’s deeply personal. Wildly experimental and defiant of any semblance of convention, this strangely poignant and distinct piece of punk, folk, and an amalgamation of so much more combines together to create something that’s wildly unlike anything you can draw a remote parallel to.
Opening with a skit of an intro, Milk St. don’t waste a moment before hurling you into its madness on the mayhem of “Peyote”. Despite the acoustic guitar forming front and centre of the melody across the record, it’s really the liveliness of its punk rock energy and character that comes swimming to the front of the line. The sheer visceral cries from Wakefield on this opening single immediately drew my attention. He’s such a compelling narrator, performing his narration with such character and raw emotion.
We then see ourselves fall into the titular track, a more brooding and building progression that’s immediately attention gripping. “I wonder if he’s okay” it opens with, sung with a rather confounding yet engrossing delivery.
My personal favourites on the record come towards the latter half, with tracks like “Long Ride” and “Free Acid”. The sheer cry on the former, “God damn I love you” is delivered with a force and fervour that’s palpably engrossing. The latter feels like the record’s version of a ballad, brought to life in its own unique modern punk/folk interpolation.
Wildly different and driven by a sincerity and rawness that’s engrossing and emotionally resonant, Milk St. hit something distinct on “V3RM0NT”.