With the energy and sound of a full four-piece band, Carly Comando & Tom Patterson create unapologetic, heavy pop tracks that showcase their years of experience and punk influences. The ten songs that construct Heavy Banding (out via Community Records on May 24, 2019) cover several themes with a main focus on Slingshot Dakota’s professional frustrations in music, friendship and the heartache that can come with it, and family. The band saw the album as a moment to express their impenitent truth, like in the track “Louder,” an impactful anthem of synths, voices, and beats that use deep emotions to express the feeling of getting lost in the boys’ club that is the music industry. An equally scathing and hopeful response to reverberations still felt from the 2016 presidential election, “Louder” is a rallying cry for inclusion and perseverance in the face of unprecedented injustice.

There’s also album standout “Casino Night,” a song that would please fans of both Carly Rae Jepsen and Julien Baker with its soothing gospel organ and a tense backbeat slowly erupting into a vibrant confessional. A mid-tempo “Thank U, Next” for adult friendships, “Casino Night” ultimately mourns a deeply personal betrayal with gratitude and grace. It’s proof enough that Slingshot Dakota is hell bent on world domination, one exhilarating anthem at a time.