The Wonder Years: Sister Cities (30th anniversary edition, clear vinyl) [HOPELESS]

Why you'll love it

This anniversary edition pairs clear vinyl with a 25-page booklet. Metacritic rates the album 82, and Pitchfork said it bordered on critical malpractice to call the band pop-punk at this point.

This edition

• Clear vinyl
• 25-page booklet

About the album

Sister Cities started with a cancelled gig. Stuck at a bus station in Santiago, Chile, after their show there fell through, The Wonder Years were rescued by local fans, who drove them to a different venue, packed in about 100 people and put them up for the night. Near the station stood a monument to the city's international ties, and Dan Campbell had his title.

Campbell kept a journal through two years of touring behind No Closer to Heaven, and the band photographed everything they saw. Back home he mined those pages for songs about distance and connection, and the music grew to fit, recorded at Sunset Sound with producers Joe Chiccarelli and Carlos de la Garza. "It Must Get Lonely" and "Flowers Where Your Face Should Be" ache beautifully, "Heaven's Gate (Sad & Sober)" broods, and "The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me" closes on a long exhale.

AllMusic heard a heavier, darker turn from the band's early days, and DIY called it proof of how powerful and poignant The Wonder Years can be. The moral, if you're ever stranded in Santiago, is to pack a Wonder Years shirt.

Also at Kops: more The Wonder Years on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Hopeless, a reissue of the 2018 album.