Iron Chic’s new record is two things: both the same as previous releases, and absolutely
incomparable to them. Released October 13, 2017, You Can’t Stay Here addresses the same bigquestions that have plagued the Long Island punk group from their outset: anxiety, depression, relationships, substance abuse, mortality, life, death, what it all means, why we’re forced to experience them. But this album is punctured with grief and devastation; while these are all familiar concepts, they’re relayed with an added desperation, and the claustrophobic, inescapable reality of them. There’s no punchline, no immediate silver-lining.

Jason Lubrano, the band’s singer, is aware of the absence. “On the past records, we generally try to throw in an optimistic note here and there. That might be the one thing that this record is lacking.”

That pervasive darkness goes right back to the record’s title, a line from the song, “You Can’t Stay Safe.” It’s a manifestation of a general anxiety, a permanent lack of peace. “No matter what you do in this world, there's always some danger or something lurking there for you,” Lubrano sighs. “Even when you kind of think you're okay, you might not be. That was just sort of like a desperation there: you can't really be safe anywhere.”