Knapsack: Day Three Of My New Life

It doesn't take long to figure out the blueprint for most Knapsack songs: They start out as conventional, hook-filled pop-punk, then burst into swollen, hoarsely shouted choruses that raise the hair on your arms. Simple dynamics, in other words. But Knapsack's second full-length record, Day Three Of My New Life, gets the formula so right that you can't help but let it suck you in: When the guitars get all chunky and power-chordy, and Blair Shehan lets loose with a throat-shredding yelled chorus, just try to keep from pumping your fist and bobbing around in fits of animated punk-rock glee. Knapsack's debut, 1995's Silver Sweepstakes, showed considerable potential; Day Three Of My New Life follows through on that album's promise, and then some.