The Vulnerable – ‘Is There Acceptance?’ Premiere
Posted: by Sean Gonzalez
The hardcore/punk community has always been rooted in asking the tough questions to make sure the social agenda gets challenged. Having started with politics, the genre has moved on to become forward thinking and even more diverse. It makes sense that bands continue to find new ways to push the norm and step outside the box, or maybe they were already outside the box to begin with, and trying to help others join them. Michigan’s The Vulnerable are doing just that with their record Is There Acceptance? — out on cassette and CD via Road Soda Records on May 7th. The Alternative is happy to premiere the album ahead of time, right below.
Here’s what the band had to say about their record: “The Vulnerable’s Is There Acceptance? is ultimately an album about accepting yourself as a queer and gender-variant individual in a world that often works to erase, invalidate, or use your identity. Tracks such as “Drive” and “Cloaks” lean more towards a hardcore sound; heavily influenced by the like of bands like G.L.O.S.S.; these songs ferociously express the anxieties, anger and bitterness that one can feel trying to navigate through the world as a gender-variant or queer individual. At the end of the album, “Roots of our Tree” and “Daily Dose of Zen”, which aims at a more pop-infused ska/punk sound, reminiscent of bands like Operation Ivy and Big D and the Kids Table, works to celebrate and accept one’s identity as valid and authentic. In the last minute of “Daily Dose of Zen” the song poses the ambiguous question: “Is There Acceptance?” leaving it up to the listener to decide for their themselves. Do we accept reality in which we live in and do we accept ourselves?”
