Local Review: Bodaget – Still At Home

Bodaget
Still At Home
Broken Animals, Scott Sellers
Street: 9.15
Bodaget = Blink-182 + Taking Back Sunday

Salt Lake City-based Bodaget’s debut record, Still At Home, proves that pop-punk isn’t dead. Jared Dyer, the one-man band behind the project, creates songs reminiscent of Blink-182’s early days combined with a dose of reality geared towards older millennials. 

The first track,“Breaking Through,” opens strong—an upbeat, aggressive pop-punk sound complete with an intro from the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber. Skipping ahead to the third track, “Captain Of The North Star,” Bodaget takes things down a notch for an almost lullaby-like melody with lyrics about pushing forward despite the odds. It’s an uplifting song for those days when it feels like you’re lost at sea.

Other must-listen songs are the title track, “Still At Home,” a classic pop-punk anthem, “Amber Eyes,” a love song for his wife and “Gone and Gone,” a track Dyer wrote about the passing of his mother. “Still At Home” tells us about a deadbeat, over-40-year-old man living with his parents who refuses to grow up and embrace adulthood responsibilities and choices. “Still At Home,” my favorite track, is relatable if you feel stuck in life as an adult, still facing the same feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that you felt when you were a teenager. 

Still At Home is a very well-made record all around. It has loud, rage-filled bursts that are essential to pop-punk and soft, sentimental moments as well, which balances it out. These are the kind of songs you can depend on to get you through the day and to help you express those feelings close to your heart, such as falling in love and working through grief.  I loved listening to it, and when I think of pop-punk, this is what I imagine it sounds like. It’s definitely a record you don’t want to miss out on. –Cherri Cheetah

Read more reviews of local pop-punk projects:
Local Review: American Humor – Inflation
Local Review: Media Queen – Horror