The title of SoCal pop-punk four-piece The Bombpops' debut album on Fat Wreck Chords, 'Fear of Missing Out,' is a fitting one for sure. Though the band was founded by frontwomen Jen Razavi and Poli van Dam in 2007, they experienced a ton of lineup changes, going through several bassists and drummers, and then the welcome arrival of some important life-things which took precedence over writing material and gigging (van Dam was pregnant with her first child), they had to wait until 2017 to release their first full-length. And the wait seems to have been well worth it.

When I first played ‘Fear of Missing Out,’ the opening track, "Capable of Lies," didn’t impress me much. But I kept listening and this album not only gets a lot better, it really grows on you. Out of the twelve songs on ‘Fear of Missing Out,’ the tracks that stood out to me most were “CA in July,” “Be Sweet,” “Sweet for Sorrow,” “FOMO,” “Watch Me Fold,” “Brake Lights,” and “Marry. Fuck. Kill.”

Regarding the song “Be Sweet,” Razavi explained, “Back in 2009, we were partying in a hotel room with Ray and Brandon Carlisle from Teenage Bottlerocket. There was a guitar there, and Brandon was showing ideas for songs. He wrote all the lyrics to Be Sweet on four sheets of hotel paper, and I held onto it.” After Brandon’s untimely passing in 2015, The Bombpops reached out to Ray to seek permission to record the song, which he granted; it was then named “Be Sweet” in tribute to the late drummer, as a nod to his catchphrase. “We didn’t leave one lyric out,” Razavi says. “Those are, word for word, Brandon Carlisle’s lyrics.”

Prior to ‘Fear of Missing Out,’ The Bombpops released a couple of well-received EPs on Red Scare Industries. Signing to Fat Wreck Chords for the band’s debut full-length was “a dream come true,” admits Razavi.

‘Fear of Missing Out’ by The Bombpops was released by Fat Wreck Chords on February 10, 2017 on vinyl, CD and digital formats.