Set Your Goals

The Bay Area punk quintet's Epitaph debut (and second album overall) brings back the days when emo-metal did not utilize auto-tune, and features guitar work that immediately puts Set Your Goals a bit above the majority of their peers. As one might guess from the band name, the messages are ultimately positive, calling for strength in the face of hypocrisy and decrying dicey U.S. policy and the general suckitude of it all. The kids successfully lighten the mood with "Summer Jam," but it's the calls to arms -- title cut, "Like You to Me," "With Hoffman Lenses We Will See the Truth" -- that are the most fun.