Names Without Numbers: We Create Reality: CD

For both better and worse, change does not come without difficulty. As so many of us have learned over the recent past, disruption is, to say the least, a mixed bag. With their new EP We Create Reality, Omaha, Nebraska quartet Names Without Numbers look out onto a world that's been forever changed by imposed isolation. The release drives home how Names Without Numbers' stirring blend of punk energy and pop hooks make the perfect vehicle for untangling the knot of contradictions we've all collectively grappled with. "We Create Reality is our first release fully written and recorded in the post-COVID world," says the band in a joint statement. "In most ways, life has gone back to the way it was prior to the pandemic, but many of us now have a different worldview — a lingering, shared PTSD that we all incurred from such a disruptive societal event. It’s actually given some of us a yearning to go back into quarantine, where things were more focused and peaceful; to identify our daily grind as the never-ending rat-race it has become." Produced, recorded and mixed by Joshua Barber (Norma Jean, The Devil Wears Prada, Hit The Lights), We Create Reality combines the urgency of emo/pop-punk luminaries like Jimmy Eat World and Anberlin with the seasoned songwriting sensibilities of rock giants like Springsteen and Petty — with a few new wrinkles thrown-in for good measure.