Berkeley's on Fire by Swmrs

Berkeley's on Fire arrived on Fueled by Ramen in February 2019, the fourth album from SWMRS, the California punk band that Cole Becker and Joey Armstrong started in Piedmont back in 2004, with Cole's brother Max Becker joining weeks later, and that spent its early years as Emily's Army. It's their sharpest-elbowed record, more grown-up and more political than anything before it, and it lets the outside world bleed into the pogo: hip-hop swagger and grime's clipped, cold rhythms snake through songs that still run on bratty guitars and gang-shout choruses. "April in Houston" was the track that found its way onto rock countdowns.

It also closed a chapter. Bassist Seb Muller left after it, and so did Armstrong, whose exit followed allegations of sexual assault made against him.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.