Pop and Punk Reunited: Waterparks' JINX - Album Review

Words: Sam Drake

Sour candy and a serene morning coffee - that’s what you could pair with Waterparks’ latest album, JINX, for the most fulfilling experience of this lyrical diary. Through its highs and lows, juicy rock riffs and soft, rainy-day vocals, JINX is the most engaging pop-punk album of 2026, so far. And with its self-aware take on fame and sincerity about women's rights, it proves Waterparks never lost sight of the punk in pop-punk.

TELL ME WHY is, without a doubt, the most fun opening to an album I have ever heard. I don’t know what I was expecting going into the album but it absolutely was not a pop-rock opera bursting with musical legends.

TELL ME WHY is a mega collaboration with pop-punk legend Mark Hoppus, Jack Skellington’s singing voice Danny Elfman, pop-punk newcomers Sorry My Love, and Foxy Shazam’s Eric Nally, set in the afterlife. The four of them follow Knight as he tries to figure out the meaning of life, whilst he’s torn between Heaven and Hell after a heart attack and I truly don’t think my words can do this track any justice. Hoppus and Sorry My Love’s Dillon Francis greet Awsten in purgatory, Nally meets Awsten in Heaven, and Elfman is the Devil himself, present when he arrives in Hell. It’s such an entertaining opening to an album and sets the tone immaculately; JINX is going to tackle some heavy topics, you are just along for the ride.

As their sixth studio album, the lyrics on JINX are incredibly honest and the most emotionally open that Waterparks have ever been. Though I’ve never believed Waterparks’ lyrics to be complicated, they are fantastically smart with their wordplay and creatively catchy and this is strengthened by the writing of JINX. The album serves as a commentary on life, death, fame, and fans and Knight doesn’t hold back with what he wants to say.

"Life’s not fair / it’s a carnival" is such an incredible lyric from PROWLER that has stuck with me since the first listen. A fair is something brief, fixed in one place, and very community based, whilst a carnival is grand and flashy, often detached from reality, travelling and purely for entertainment purposes. In combination with the track before it, IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL, PROWLER gives us an insight into what life in the spotlight is like for Knight and the band. It’s such an incredibly open and honest statement that bands avoid voicing in case they upset or scare their fans but Waterparks have thrown caution to the wind with this album.

Although GIRLS NEED GUNS is the final track on the album, ANY MINUTE NOW feels like the perfect closer for this clustered, messy, authentic, and thought-provoking album. It’s both nostalgic and hopeful, whilst the lyrics are about how everyone is just as lost as each other. Knight’s gentle vocals about the uncertainty of growing up and learning how to navigate life are paired with the emotional swelling of an orchestra behind him, and it truly makes it feel like the credits of a coming-of-age film. If GIRLS NEED GUNS wasn’t the final track, ANY MINUTE NOW would be an amazing closer. But it makes the impact of GIRLS NEED GUNS all the more important.

The album ends with Ginny Knight (Awsten’s mother) having a particularly emotional discussion about women’s rights and body autonomy, telling Awsten and the listeners about her story of womanhood. Waterparks gives her a voice, gives women a voice, to make their own stance on the matter and I think they did it beautifully. There’s no talking over her, her voice takes precedence over the lulling music behind her, and Knight’s vocals are only heard in the chorus as he calls the world ‘fucked up’ and stands by women needing guns, to protect themselves. Its impact is felt as the thirteenth and final track; once the album is finished, you sit with it all to process your own thoughts and feelings on the matter. It’s very well done.

With sounds that remind me of 2010 My Chemical Romance in TASTES LIKE TANGERINE, and the genuine conversations in IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL and GIRLS NEED GUNS, I truly believe that JINX is the most engaging pop-punk album of the year. It feels rare that current pop-punk bands address their roots in punk-rock and they seldom have lyrics that confront society and political issues but it’s refreshing to see Waterparks take up the mantle and wear their heart on their sleeve.