A Good Year to Forget is twelve songs of acoustic, sad bastard music that has plenty of reason to be such. In the course of the last year, Joey Cape’s (the frontman for Lagwagon) marriage ended, he got COVID, he moved back in with his mom and stepdad, and his father died. When it rains, it pours and we all have a year (or two or three) in our lives when things get pretty rough (ask me about my 2011!). While there’s a varied instrumental presence (organ, drums, banjo, piano) the songs are anchored around Cape’s calm voice and acoustic guitar. The music is too simplistic in structure to draw me in, but I have a lot of respect for Cape putting all his shit out there. If you’re a fan of Cape’s solo outings, you may come for the music but you’ll stay for the lyrics and personal story. –Kurt Morris (Fat Wreck, fatwreck.com)