"Cope, to me, means getting by. It means letting go, and being OK with being OK," the band's frontman, Andy Hull, said in a press release. "You can cope in a positive way when bad things happen, or a negative way, and that blend was a big lyrical theme for me on this album."

While the band demoed around 28 songs in a new home studio for the self-produced album, they pared them down to a taut 38 minutes of what they term "unapologetic heavy rock." "Top Notch" reflects that, sounding more aggressive than the band ever has before.