All My Mistakes is the new EP by Nerima (Nuh-REE-ma), a pop punk band from Oshawa that has already turned heads and earned two nominations in the local music industry.
This is their third EP since the band released its first single, “All Afraid To Fall” in 2020. Coming after two records where they were still figuring out their place, the band says this EP paints a picture of themselves they are happy with.
“If you like this EP… you’re the exact brand of listener we’ve been preparing our sound for since 2019,” says the band via email responding to a request for information about the album and themselves as a group. This EP does a decent job of moving Nerima towards the centre of the Oshawa music scene.
The band describes its sound as “punk rock for pessimists,” which checks out with the mood and tone of All My Mistakes. This record expresses a restless sadness, with catchy vocal lines against a solid wall of guitars driving the music forward with irresistible momentum.
Nerima’s sound has clear reverberations of the 2000s and 2010s alt rock, indie and pop punk. They are influenced by Paramore, The All-American Rejects, and Jimmy Eat World.
They have been blending in emo and hardcore elements as their music evolves, lending ears to Silverstein, PUP and A Day To Remember as they write their latest music.
The EP’s five short tracks are punchy and well-constructed with an infectious energy and freshness in the performances. Lexi’s vocals carry the songs with their creative twists and turns.
All My Mistakes comes at the head of a discography flavoured with the uncertainty and angst that comes with being young in a world on edge.
With songs like “LOSE!” which is an unsent angry letter to the self, or “Fifty Years” that explores the anxieties of a relationship and of being with the same person forever, the band says that the EP is about the irrational things that define each stage of life.
The record avoids the urge to prop up one or two “Reel songs” using the rest, revealing a band that has come into its own.
“LOSE!” has a sharp edge with the chugging guitars and chunky bass creating a sludgy ground for Lexi’s vocals to sink into in the verse, setting up for an explosive, energetic chorus that gets you jumping and thinking all at once.
While there is not much variety of styles in the five songs, they all stand apart as their own musical statement and deliver the pop-punk record as promised.
And in the interest of not navel-gazing too much, “Bitter Saint (If It Kills You)” takes aim at an all-powerful entity that sets us up to fail by giving us dreams and desires that cannot be met in this life.
The songwriting sometimes follows the familiar contours of the genre, with the call-and-response between quiet verses and loud choruses or its sing-along sadness and earworm hooks.
Borrowing from the easycore aesthetic, songs like “Bitter Saint” and “Reverence” have simple, well-placed breaks that get the job done.
But the record also feels as though it is pushing against these conventions and searching for a signature. Each song feels dense and meaningful even at the few points where the rhythm section and vocals sound slightly derivative.
“Fifty Years,” the band’s ruminations on love for the long-haul which was released as a single ahead of the EP, brings back the Green Day nostalgia. There is a dash of irreverence mixed in with the peppy sentimentalism. This track is brighter than others on the record and takes listeners through tight, well-defined sections in little over three minutes.
What makes them stand out is the intentionality of the music which avoids being formulaic even as it remains familiar and accessible.
All My Mistakes has been a year and a half in the works since the band began writing in January 2024. The result is a promising record from an upcoming band that has a lot more up its sleeve.