The seeds of my rediscovery of the Get Up Kids were planted in 2019. I was writing for a music review site, and the site owner messaged me asking if I was ever into the Get Up Kids, because they had a new album coming out and he needed someone to review it. I said that I listened to them a little bit, but wasn’t a superfan. He said, “that’s better than anyone else,” and sent me Problems. 

What greeted me when I listened was a collection of emotional power pop that hit many of the same sweet spots of their classic work.

I’ll say again though: their classic work didn’t hold too much sentimentality to me. The stakes weren’t that high going into the listen. I didn’t have a precious image of one of my favorite bands that could be shattered or protected based on this record. I was spared the great disappointment that many felt with On A Wire. In fact, outside of a few (apparently more meaningful than I remembered) listens of Something to Write Home About, my TGUK album of choice was Eudora, a collection of B-sides, rarities, and cover songs that included “Central Standard Time,” the incredible track that became the standard against which I compared the rest of their output (and found it lacking).

But even if I went into this record with tenuous hopes (the previous comeback LP There Are Rules allegedly dashed such hopes), I can’t see how I could have ended up disappointed. Their songwriting is as clever and charming as ever. From the moment the acoustic opening of “Satellite” is interrupted by the band running at full tilt, it doesn’t ease off of the catchy-rock-n-roll pedal. In that way, it strikes me as a sort of harmonious combination of the lauded Something to Write Home About and the panned-but-still-great On A Wire. There’s enough to tie it to their emo roots, but it doesn’t allow itself to be boxed in to the conventions of the genre.

That balance makes for some great moments, such as the shuffling melancholy of “Salina,” the catchy-as-all-get-out “Fairweather Friends,” the airy angular groove of “Common Ground,” the glitchy synthpop of “Waking Up Alone,” or the gorgeous piano ballad “Your Ghost Is Gone” that closes the record.

At this point in time, we’re far beyond the point of asking if comeback records are necessary. Just about every band you can think of has already been touring and writing together again whether or not anyone is asking for it (except for Fugazi, who has apparently been writing together on and off for years and refuses to record anything). But in the case of Problems, whether anyone asked for it or not, the album itself justifies its own existence…which is more than some comeback records can say.