Written by Sophia Bronwyn
Cartel doesn't exactly ease its way back into the world. From the opening seconds of “All Singing, All Dancing,” the band makes it clear that Learning How to Cope isn't meant to be a quiet return. The first full-length album from Cartel since 2013's Collider arrives after a year spent looking back at their past and celebrating the 20th anniversary of CHROMA, but this isn't simply a band trying to recreate what came before it. Instead, Learning How to Cope feels like a new chapter, one filled with catchy hooks, heavier edges, personal reckonings and plenty worth shouting about.
I came into this album without the nostalgia that many longtime Cartel fans may have. I didn't grow up listening to CHROMA, and I hadn't actually heard Cartel before being introduced to this new record. That made Learning How to Cope an interesting introduction to the band, allowing the album to stand on its own rather than being viewed through the lens of what came before it.
“All Singing, All Dancing” is a strong way to open the album, immediately feeling like a song built for a live performance. It's the kind of track that seems destined to get a crowd jumping before the band even has a chance to slow down. That energy carries into “Oxy Moron,” where catchy hooks feel both fresh and strangely familiar. It's an easy song to throw on during a drive, the kind that can quickly turn into an unplanned car sing-along.
“Constants,” featuring Dashboard Confessional, adds another layer to the album through the blend of vocals. The collaboration doesn't feel forced; instead, the voices complement each other and add something distinct to the track.
Then comes “Deadbeat Drag,” kicking the energy up another notch and increasing the album's mosh-pit potential. Learning How to Cope continues to find ways to be fun without losing sight of the heavier emotions underneath it. “Shirts & Skins” is one of the album's standout tracks for me, combining an incredibly catchy sound with a message about finding something worth fighting for. Its lyrics carry the weight of betrayal, humanity, and the consequences of looking away, but the song itself still feels like something you want to turn up loud.
That contrast is part of what makes punk so powerful. The heavier subjects can bring out heavier emotions, but instead of simply sitting with that anger, music gives it somewhere to go. You can scream along. You can jump. You can dance. You can find yourself in a mosh pit surrounded by strangers who are feeling some version of the same thing. Learning How to Cope understands that sometimes catharsis doesn't have to be quiet.
“Shirts & Skins” carries an especially different weight for me because of its connection to Minneapolis. The song was unveiled in the aftermath of the Minneapolis ICE murders, making its themes of humanity, community and standing up for what matters feel particularly close to home. With ICE no longer being an immediate presence in the same way here at the moment, my reaction to the song has shifted. Now, there's an almost overwhelming sense of awe in seeing how something so horrific can inspire so many different forms of art.
Minneapolis has always been a city with a strong sense of community, and in the aftermath of what happened, that community showed up in countless ways. People helped one another, but they also created. They made art. They made music. They found ways to rebuild pieces of what had been broken. “Shirts & Skins” became another form of that response, turning difficult emotions into something people can hear, feel and carry with them.
That sense of personal struggle continues on “Inside Out,” which feels particularly relatable for anyone who has experienced the ending of a friendship. Not every betrayal comes from a romantic relationship, and losing someone who was once a part of your everyday life can leave its own kind of emptiness. It's another example of the album finding different ways to explore what it means to cope with things that don't always have easy resolutions.
After spending much of the album moving at full speed, Cartel closes Learning How to Cope with “Everything's Fine,” the slowest song on the record. It's a noticeable shift, but one that feels necessary. Rather than ending with another burst of energy, the band leaves listeners sitting with everything they've just heard.
The song asks what it means to watch the world change around you and still find a reason to care. Its questioning of a world that can feel increasingly difficult to understand, paired with the admission that the signs are “all there in red,” captures much of the tension running through the album. But there is something important in the song's refusal to completely give in. Even when the world feels overwhelming, there is still a desire to do something about it.
That may be the most fitting way for Learning How to Cope to end. The album isn't about finding a perfect answer to everything that's wrong. It's about acknowledging the anger, grief, betrayal and uncertainty, while refusing to let those feelings become the end of the story.
And perhaps that's ultimately what Learning How to Cope does best. It doesn't pretend that everything can be neatly fixed. Instead, it takes anger, heartbreak, frustration and uncertainty and turns them into something loud enough to move through you.
Even with the album's heavier themes, Cartel never loses the hooks that make these songs easy to come back to. There are plenty of moments made for blasting through the car speakers, but there are just as many that make you imagine what these songs will feel like in a packed venue. “All Singing, All Dancing,” “Deadbeat Drag” and “Shirts & Skins” already feel built for a crowd, and the upcoming tour with State Champs should give those songs the room to become something even bigger once they're shared with a live audience.
For a band entering a new era after more than a decade between full-length releases, Learning How to Cope feels less like an attempt to return to a specific point in Cartel's history and more like an acknowledgement of where they are now. The hooks are still there, but they're carrying more weight. The songs are still fun, but there's more underneath them. And the anger isn't simply anger for the sake of being angry; it's being turned into something communal. Sometimes coping means talking about what hurts. Sometimes it means fighting for what matters. And sometimes it means turning the volume up, screaming the words back at the band and letting the music carry some of the weight for a while.
Album Tracks
- All Singing, All Dancing
- Oxy Moron
- Constants ft. Dashboard Confessional
- Deadbeat Drag
- Shirts & Skins
- Think Twice
- Inside Out
- Give Or Take
- Supercalapocalypticexpialidocious
- Sry Not Sry
- Disarmed
- Everything’s Fine
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