Bad weeks, late nights and one final attempt to get your life together all fit comfortably inside the title So It Goes. Bellends carried that mood into High Five Studios and came back with a second album full of coarse guitars, folk instrumentation, piano, big choruses and stories that grow heavier once the room quiets down. Eoin McCarthy writes about love, loss, depression and sobriety from inside the mess, giving the record its particular sense of humor: bleak enough to sting, rowdy enough to keep the night moving.
McCarthy keeps himself inside every situation he describes. Depression and sobriety arrive as lived pressures, while the jokes prevent the songs from turning into lectures. His narrators still want the party, still value the people around them and still recognize the bill waiting at the end of the night. That perspective gives the album warmth. The mess belongs to a community, and the songs turn private trouble into material a roomful of strangers can sing together.
Across the advance material, Bellends pack several impulses into the same arrangement. Punk accelerates the rhythm, folk instruments widen the melodic shape, pop keeps the chorus visible, and Americana carries the emotional residue. The songs remain crowded, loud and slightly unruly, with each element actively competing for space. That density gives the music personality, especially when a rough guitar part collides with piano or an Irish melody rises through the noise.
The instrumental palette also changes the emotional scale of the record. Violin, mandolin, banjo and tin whistle bring a weathered, communal color, while the electric guitars keep the songs physically immediate. Piano occupies a more exposed position, especially on Fuck You Kate Bush; I Love You, where it turns a blunt confession into something theatrical. Bellends use these instruments as voices inside the argument, each one pulling a different emotion toward the surface.
Pocket Knife provides the easiest entry point because it moves quickly and wraps a direct hook around the desire for forward motion. Its video sends a hot-dog costume through the city, which captures the band’s attitude toward emotional sincerity rather well. The personal material receives full attention, while the presentation leaves room for everybody to laugh. The Milwaukee Record included the video among its top fifteen selections of 2025. Personal growth can survive a little mustard.
Fuck You Kate Bush; I Love You wins the album’s title competition immediately. Heartbreak, an insult, a declaration of love and a perfectly responsible semicolon all occupy the same line. Its forceful rhythm keeps the song upright while the piano spreads the emotional confusion across the arrangement. Bampot, named after a Scottish term for an idiot, heads directly into bar-room folk punk and sweaty group participation. The Ghosts of Me and You lowers the temperature through a simpler Irish and Americana frame, allowing the band’s folk instincts to carry the weight.
McCarthy’s writing supplies the album’s center. Folk-punk details attach themselves to heartbreak, depression and sobriety, giving the rowdy surface genuine consequence. Raised glasses and shouted choruses acquire a second meaning once the lyrics begin addressing dependency and loss. The bar becomes setting, refuge, pressure point and source material all at once. Bellends understand how friendship and damage can grow from the same nights, and So It Goes keeps returning to that uncomfortable connection.
I prefer Bellends when the edges rub against each other. The piano inside Fuck You Kate Bush; I Love You, the folk attack of Bampot and the emotional directness of Pocket Knife reveal a group with little interest in keeping every influence inside its assigned corner. The friction becomes the signature. Every instrument appears ready to drag the song somewhere else, while the chorus gathers everything back into one room.
The production keeps the performances close to the surface. Drums and guitars occupy the front of the mix, while piano and folk strings retain enough separation to change a song’s temperature. Roughness follows the dynamics and gives each track its own degree of abrasion. That approach suits material built around crowded-room energy: loud passages land with physical force, while smaller details expose the emotional pressure underneath the choruses. High Five Studios captures both functions through a direct and physical presentation.
The official album release show takes place on August 28, 2026, at 7 p.m. at Club Garibaldi, with Fight Dice joining the bill. The setting suits songs built around collective energy, large hooks and the possibility of an audience turning a personal confession into a communal shout.
Under the jokes, the noise and the wonderfully stupid band name, So It Goes is concerned with continuation. Relationships collapse, difficult nights accumulate, sobriety demands work and people keep finding reasons to gather again. Bellends give that weary shrug of a title drums, piano, folk strings and a chorus loud enough for everybody carrying a private mess. The title accepts the damage; the music keeps moving.
All information provided is prepared in accordance with editorial standards and is intended to offer useful insights for readers. Please note that the opinions, interpretations, and evaluations expressed by the author may substantially differ from the viewpoints of our readers or the general public at large, and we respect the diversity of opinions.
