Fugitive Bubble

***What Will Happen If We Stop is the second album from Olympia, Washington’s Fugitive Bubble. If you heard Fugitive Bubble’s first record for Sorry State, 2024’s Delusion, you won’t be surprised by the creative restlessness the band displays on their new record. While the core of Fugitive Bubble’s high-energy art punk style carries forward from Delusion, What Will Happen If We Stop expands and upgrades their sound. Harley’s vocals are recorded more clearly and delivered with even more power and authority. New drummer Typhoid Mary—whom you may know from their other band Physique—plays at even more blistering tempos, frequently laying down jaw-on-the-floor moments of percussive pyrotechnics. Fugitive Bubble’s songwriting has also grown more expansive and ambitious. On first listen, the speed and melody will floor you, but as your ear untangles these songs, you’ll notice how dense they are with ideas, each one overflowing with cool parts that flow seamlessly from one to the next. Other new wrinkles include sprinkles of acid country guitar a la Meat Puppets, the climactic CCR-ish rave-up “Ego Drip,” the two-part piano piece “Demodex in Situ,” and “Your Loyalty to the Flag Lies Beneath My Boot,” the solo guitar piece that ends the record on a meditative note. Throughout these twists and turns, Fugitive Bubble proves it’s still possible to make punk rock that’s politically relevant and musically ambitious without losing sight of the youthful energy at the genre’s core.