Following up the release of 2016’s “No Sorry”, Boston, MA natives Birthing Hips are helping usher in a new meaning of the term punk with their manic songs and fierce DIY ethos. On their latest release Urge To Merge you are thrown knee deep into their deranged sonnets that teeter between indie-punk simplicity and absolute chaos. Though the group has come to an untimely and unfortunate demise, thanks to NNA Tapes we are able to rock out to an ultra rad parting gift via cassette or download.

Right from the start on “No Pressure” you get a keen sense of the band’s erratic and warped songwriting style as it clumsily crawls towards what seems to be a growing or wavering sense of harmony. Next you’re thrown into the mutant lullaby that is “Belly Please”, full of searing guitars and jazz-inspired rhythms that somehow result in one of the album’s more conventional songs, a pair in a way with “Strip Tease”, which is equally as memorable and bizarre.

On the song “I Want This Place Impeccable” you are immediately launched into panic-attack levels of stress and anxiety while also recieving a healthy dose of humor and satire to help swallow all of the neurosis. “Shut Up and Leave Me Alone” provides a whimsical backdrop paired with an incredibly poignant message, and is followed by “Sludge” which delves into one of the more heavy and conventionally punk sounding parts of this album.

Urge To Merge is incredibly fun to listen to and helps shatter any preconceptions as to what a punk or indie album can or should sound like. One of the album’s most standout tracks is “Droplet”, complete with stutters and explosive guitars that lead the listener into a dizzying frenzy with an undertone of a coherent melody buried slightly below the surface. For fans of Sonic Youth, Chinese Stars, early Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Sloppy Jane.