This is the second EP now from DJ Ragas’ side project, and anybody who heard 2014’s It Starts Here will know just what to expect: punkish meat-and-potatoes roots rock for disaffected middle-aged lovers. Not that you need to be romantically experienced to really feel the lyrics, which are still pretty two-dimensional; when it comes to the tricky artifice of welding two souls together, the Junkies rarely get deeper than phrases like “We’re gonna be alright” or “I just can’t believe she did this thing to me.”

But you probably do have to be Gen X to really feel their influences, as the Junkies’ two main creative forces split the songs and vocals right down the middle, leaving two distinct subgenres doing a pretty good job at sharing the same band. Ragas (rhythm guitar) is clearly devoted to a cowpunk type of aesthetic, shades of the Long Ryders or even R.E.M., whereas Travis DeRoche (bass) introduces a lot of first wave hardcore: chanted choruses, fast downbeats, and a hint of Lee Ving or Glenn Danzig sneer in the vocals. Usually the ideas work, if not always together—only the abrupt tempo changes in “Unleashed” seem gimmicky—but as a faster, angrier upgrade on the debut, it delivers. Just don’t expect either the depth or righteousness of their forbears.