Cartel – Learning How To Cope Review

After Cartel’s profile on Spotify continued to be flooded by other artists with the same name, I wasn’t sure if we’d ever see the band again. They’ve been all but silent following their 2009 album, Cycles, but then, in 2025, the band resurfaced, re-releasing their debut album, Chroma. Now, we’re in 2026, and I honestly didn’t know what to expect when Cartel solidified their comeback with the album Learning How To Cope.

Although I hadn’t kept up with anything Cartel did after their debut album, Chroma, I can say that I’m a massive fan of that album, so much so that I’m yet to listen to theire 2025 re-recording in fear that it might ruin the original. So when I heard they were dropping a new album, I was apprehensively excited. Was this going to be a solid throwback to the mid-00s, or was this going to be a comeback album marking a new beginning for the band?

I can say for sure that this isn’t Chroma, and for those expecting another Chroma, they might be a little disappointed, but honestly, let’s forget about Chroma for a second and appreciate Learning How To Cope for what it is: a natural evolution for the band. It also comes with a feature that any elder emo will appreciate (Dashboard Confessional!!).

Learning How To Cope is objectively a fucking good album. It has hints of classic Cartel, but with a certain air of maturity to it. It’s something new for the band while also sticking to their emo pop roots. This isn’t a band trying to reinvent themselves, not in the slightest. Instead they’re reminding us what they can do and that they’re still damn good at it.

This is something reflected in the lyricism in this album, with vocalist Will Pugh touching on growth and self-understanding. There’s also a level of political activism in the album, too, with the track Shirts & Skins, for example, being dropped early in response to ICE agents flooding America, specifically Minnesota, around the time Alex Pretti was murdered. It’s a song that touches on a hard, real, and emotional topic, but is delivered in such a Cartel way. It’s catchy as hell.

Instrumentally, I was really hoping that Cartel wouldn’t go down the route of overly polished, flashy production or hyper-processed electronic-influenced pop punk, and thankfully they haven’t. Learning How To Cope is intrinsically a Cartel album; it’s emo pop, pop-punk at its core, with catchy riffs, big choruses, and thumping drums. As always, Will Putney knows what he’s doing behind the desk.

It obviously can’t escape modern production; this isn’t 2005. Music production software and equipment have come a long way since Chroma was released, but I really like that the band have stuck with what they know, bringing us an album that certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been thirteen years since their last major record. Standout tracks for me on this album are Shirts & Skins, Deadbeat Drag (because I swear this was going into a Hole cover), and Sry Not Sry.