The name FIDLAR stands for “F*** It Dog, Life’s A Risk,” and the name seems quite fitting for the music and lyrics. To sum up their latest album, “Too” is about getting sober and all the struggles and setbacks that come with it. Zac Carper, who has recently become sober, got the worst phone call in his life on May 18, 2013. “I was with this girl, and we were both drug addicts,” says Carper. “She was pregnant, and she overdosed on heroin while I was on tour.” She died from a staph infection, presumably from a dirty needle. “That day, I found out that my girlfriend was dead,” he recalls, covering his eyes with his hand. “I felt such guilt and shame over it. I was the one who introduced her to getting high. She had a miscarriage with my kid. I didn’t know what to do besides drink my life away.”

Carper’s addiction almost ended the band and his life several times. When talking about the new record “Too,” he says, “Dude, life for me is … hard and I use drugs to get over that. Now you take the medicine away, which was drugs, then I’m like a crazy person. I’m like psychotic now. I have mood swings. The only way I can deal with it is to write.”

Enough background, let’s talk about the music. This album has grown on me in such a short amount of time, to the point where for the most part, there are not many complaints about it. This album opens up with a banger, “40oz On Repeat,” a song that really paints a picture of an awkward kid with horrible anxiety and who is just isolated, painted by lines like “I don’t know why it’s so difficult for me talk to somebody I don’t know/Well I tried to ask you out about a thousand times/But in my head you just always say ‘no.’” The song title shouts out Sublime with their track “40oz To Freedom.” Then the song “Punks,” a song with intense screeched vocals, a (VERY) catchy and fuzzy guitar riff, and even a super bluesy organ sandwiched in there somewhere. That then leads to the song “West Coast,” a super fun and catchy skate punk song about skipping school, failing, and having fun. The classic subject: teenage debauchery. My favorite song on the album is “Bad Habits,” which is super relatable and very dark, lyrically. That was the first song written for the album and was sketched out when Carper was in rehab.

Favs: Bad Habits; Leave Me Alone; Sober; Overdose

Least Favs: Bad Medicine; Drone

Album Rating: 8/10