Back in March Zac Coe released the first of a three-part series for his (partly) solo project The All-About. It featured David Coe (a relative, I assume) on guitar and Zac’s long-time co-vocalist Gabby Ambrosio. The two songs featured on Volume 1 are familiar enough if you’re a fan of The All-About, but they also harbor a separation from everything that’s been released previously.

Instead of synth-heavy pop like you’d find on his last full-length Suburban Heart, the series kicks off with a decidedly more rock and roll feel. I know Zac is a big Springsteen fan, and the songs here and on the following Volumes put his Jersey love on full display. The songwriting has always been more The Boss than the other major influence on The All-About’s earlier work, The Killers. In these six new songs, it sounds like Zac has finally embraced his strongest assets and let some of that other stuff slide away with only “Blue Dress” from Volume 2 really laying on the synthy goodness.

Letting go is a big theme of You Make It Look So Easy. It’s been a theme in everything leading up to this point as well-high school friends moving away, going off to college alone, and now that part of life is over as well, so there’s a lot of personal experiences that have turned into songs. My favorite example of this comes on Volume 3, which came out today. It’s almost a country ballad George Jones might sing if he were born in the 90’s. Coe sings “Baby tear me open. What I contain is temporary, and I may forget you before you forget me.”

I don’t know what Zac’s plans are for post-graduation, but I hope they include heading back to Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen to record another full-length. His releases have been sporadic, often coming out of nowhere with a tweet reading “I’m releasing my new single tomorrow!” I’m sure whatever he does next will be great because through 3 albums, 2 EP’s, and a handful of singles, he has yet to put something out that I don’t like.

So happy graduation, Zac! Please don’t get caught up in the rat race and give up on music. I hope that’s one thing you’ll never have to let go.

All 3 Volumes are available now on The All-About’s Bandcamp page for FREE, so get yourself some music!