Denver, CO punk upstarts Public Opinion have announced their upcoming sophomore album, The Curse of Public Opinion, arriving 7th August 2026 via SideOneDummy.

Clocking in at a mean. 23 minutes, The Curse of Public Opinion is loaded with defiant anthems that plumb the depths of existential disappointment through a sneering cocktail of 2000s garage rock swagger, classic punk hooks, and hardcore ferocity. Plenty of albums provide the soundtrack for picking yourself back up, but Public Opinion are there for when you’re getting kicked while you’re down. 

To celebrate the announcement, Public Opinion have shared the record’s raucous opener, “Balloon Man Running.” It’s a vitriolic cut of unfiltered frustration set to the kind of primal rock & roll riffs that few bands have the guts to try, let alone pull off. 

Public Opinion emerged from the Denver, Colorado, hardcore scene in 2020 and have evolved from spunky proto-punks into the anthemic rock & roll powerhouse heard on their sophomore album. Recorded with Brett Romnes (Anxious, I Am The Avalanche, Hot Mulligan), The Curse of Public Opinion sounds absolutely massive, pushing the band’s blend of melody and madness further than ever before. Lyrically, vocalist Kevin Hart (not that one) rejects social media-derived faux therapy sentiments and platitude-drenched motivational speeches; this is properly pissed-at-the-world music for when it’s just time to vent. “A lot of bands make music about feeling bad but they’re so dialed-in. I think our message is a little more messy, but a lot more human,” he explains. “At the end of the day I’m kind of a quiet, angry guy. I don’t explode, I implode. So when it comes to the songs I don’t try to stop all that from coming through.”