Every generation has a subgenre that has defined its coming-of-age journey. For much of Gen Z, that subgenre has been sad-girl pop rock… and no one captures the simultaneous shining excitement and heart-wrenching nostalgia of growing up quite like The Greeting Committee.

The Kansas City-based band’s third full-length album Everyone’s Gone and I Know I’m the Cause is especially poignant given the recent departures of founding members Brandon Yangmi and Austin Fraser. The change in lineup was a shock to many fans, given that the original quartet (completed by Addie Sartino and Pierce Turcotte) had been together since 2014, when they attended high school at Blue Valley in Overland Park, Kansas.

Sartino, Turcotte and longtime member Noah Spencer are now joined by Micah Ritchie with a sound that’s as rich and vibrant as ever.

The album kicks off with “Cyclical” and a question that quickly becomes a recurring theme: “Is it just me?” It’s the suffocating feeling of being caught in an endless cycle without knowing how to break free—hence the promotional photos of Sartino and Turcotte beneath a clinging sheet of plastic.

Lead single “popmoneyhits” struggles with maintaining artistic integrity while also wanting to be “dirty rich.” In a time of rampant inflation, “popmoneyhits” is a strong contender for the song of the summer as vacation plans and patio brunches are thrown off course by a lack of funds.

You don’t have to dig too deep to find the anxiety and self-doubt bubbling beneath bright, shimmery, energetic vocals and synths. “All Alone” contains the titular lyric and a profound sense of loss: “Everyone’s gone and I know I’m the cause / I’m only a victim of wanting too much / I am lonely because I don’t know when to stop.” It’s an emotionally devastating song that will speak to the overachievers who push themselves—and those around them—too hard.

The vibey, romantic women-loving-women anthem “Sex & Taxes” immediately follows. Like “Honey Toast,” it has a syrupy, intimate feel without the abruptness that can often accompany an album’s tone shift. That’s perhaps because every song on the record contributes to an overarching theme of growing pains and the need to set boundaries, which culminates with “Don’t Talk.”

Sartino describes the last track as an acknowledgement of an unhealthy pattern that resulted in her giving up certain people and habits.

“It might suck, but that’s what growing up and healing is and that’s what needed to happen for everybody,” she says.