REVIEW: Penny Bored's "What If? As If!" via JoJo Centineo Studios

Sometimes there is an artist in DIY that feels like they’ve been around a lot longer than they actually have. I have so many memories of hearing about Penny Board, seeing an acoustic set, seeing them around social media, even remember a hiatus being announced if I recall correctly? Still, What If? As If! is this project's debut EP. I haven’t truly dug into any of the singles by this artist but was still looking forward to the debut if not just to have a voice to the name so to speak.

The five track EP had three singles, which to me seems like quite a bit but I heard none of them beforehand so no harm on my overall experience. The first of those singles, “Karma” offers an edgy cut with some clear anger in the delivery and lyricism. The second, “Cry Baby” is sort of what I remembered from the acoustic set I was able to catch, emo verses with a bouncy hook. I really like the lyricism on this one especially that clever prescription line. The line about crying, however, feels forced in both execution and delivery. The final single was “Pills 4 Brainz,” a hip hop inspired song with a heavy bass-built beat. The lyrics on this one is very confrontational and avoid committing any lyrical miracle sins and even has another clever pill line. Of the two new songs the title track is my favorite. This one leans more toward wearing its influences on its sleeve lending a lot to emo tracks from 2000s radio.


This is overall a solid debut with its key factor being this artist’s ability to stick to a blueprint while being able to utilize the same formula between them all. The singles being the vast majority of the EP and the strongest songs to me is sort of a detriment, but I know my view on single rollouts isn’t universal. Good first showing of this artist and I will be watching for more.


I liked this record


Favorite tracks:

  1. Cry Baby
  2. Karma
  3. Pills 4 Brainz
  4. Clean
  5. What If? As If!

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