The Boojums – The Boojums: Album Review

By JohnMartinson on 5th November 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

The Boojums debut is a dose of Pop-Rock with the bottle shaken and the top flicked off.

Release Date: 31st October 2025

Label: Having Fun Records

Format: LP / CD / digital

BOTTLE SHAKEN AND THE TOP FLICKED OFF

The Boojums self-titled album offering comes on the back of a growing online fan base and can best be described as Pop-Rock with the bottle shaken and the top flicked off. It is a portrait of aggressive youthful commitment to letting guitars talk through angst. The three-piece band from Nova Scotia like their guitars to rasp with vocals to match and on this first offering they are fast out of the traps to let rip. It is a jolt of garage rock that could serve as a defibrillator to jolt other bands to come through to the fore. The Boojums come at us with wide-eyed hunger and a lot of fun.

PUNCH, LUST, PACE

When a band come at their releases with enduring optimism, they become instantly alluring. The Boojums hot-steps through twelve fast-paced tracks with breathtaking energy that would put the best of us on our knees. As a collective, there is no letup in the high octane pop-punk and it is done with intent. Some of the hardest hitting tracks, Don’t Wanna Love and Out Of My Head are garage rock with more than a good smattering of Blink 182 in there for good measure.

The latter serves as the album’s opener and is a suitable pace-setter for the rest of the album, whereas Don’t Wanna Love serves as a typical heartbreak tome but done at some pace. Burnin’ Up is a punchy, lusty loves with a solid pop-punk rip that offers Willie Straton’s best vocals on the album. Another deeper cut, Gravy offers the most interesting track development on the album as it does it great job at capturing the playable curiosities of the band in a swift two-minute romp.

STICKY DANCEFLOOR FILLERS

As a lead single for the upcoming album, Wings Of Fire was a fitting choice: its relentless pace, simple chords and wailing backing vocal will fill sticky dance floors. The only missing ingredient would be a room temperature bottle of Rolling Rock. With the youthful quest for something bigger it’s the perfect lead single and one that will ensure they gain more traction. Stick Together works to add more instrumental textures to the album’s opening, specifically through the distorted riffs and gravely vocal. The song hangs as a crescendo for the rest of the album.

Midway through Meet In The Middle there is a snarky, short guitar slide amid a drum and guitar cluster – there’s nothing subtle about this first album offering from The Boojums, but this stands out as it is some effort at musical subtlety. Garden Of The Sons is melodic track with lyrics to match: Taste the fruit so bountiful; look down on all the little ones from the garden of the sons. Yet, what the band do so well here is let the guitar do much of the heavy lifting so it feels like the vocal is a reprieve.

Of a similar vein is Yellow Lines which has a touch of the existentialism to it and so was a clear choice for the album close. Once again, the breathtaking pace of the closing track brings the energy of the album to a wonderful climax with screeching riff outros to close; a satisfying close to say the least!

MELODIC INTERMISSIONS

Amid the frantic bluster of The Boojums, there are snippets of more tender moments. The opening of Like It gives the initial hint that we may be treated to a Boojums ballad before it sets off into the full-blooded sprint. It’s not that the album needs a ballad of any sort — we are having far too much for for that – but the brief change in tempo here sits well and creates a more dynamic album overall. Willie Straton frantic shouts are a mainstay highlight of the album. Yet, deeper into the album, the singing duties fall to Sara Johnston and the more melodic approach, with controlled, smooth delivery hits perfectly towards the album’s end in Dan’s Transmisison.

Varying the lead vocal is ground that The Boojums will undoubtedly explore further in their next phase as it creates a suitably complete sound to the album. Playing with harmony and textures come to the fore again in the latest single release, Football. Lyrically this paints a vivid image of growing up in Nova Scotia with sepia-tinged freeze frames of an idyllic past. These halcyon days captured with pinpoint accuracy in the lyrics: ‘…trying to get a chance with the homecoming queen, yeah I remember when that was me…’

NO HANGING AROUND

The Boojums don’t hang around on this album, they come at it with pace, energy and vigour. The songs are written amid the backdrop of an expansive Canadian landscape yet the feel of souls ready to break out into the wider world through pop-punk riffs and crashing vocals. Since appearing online in 2024 and building a steady fan base, there is a sense of hard-worked, earnest hours put into honing this first output. Their freshman album is a great taste of what’s to come and the fanbase will build from here. There’s a nostalgic undertone to the sound yet played out with high intensity. This is one to turn the dial up on. This is recommended for those who like their Strokes garage rock mixed with a healthy heap of Blink-182 punk-pop.

Here’s Wings Of Fire: