Jen Razavi—better known to punk audiences as Jen Pop—has stood at the front of stages with The Bombpops, delivering sharp hooks and restless energy from the heart of Southern California’s punk underground. But now, with the unveiling of her forthcoming acoustic collection Borrowed & Blue, the songwriter is stepping into quieter territory—one built not on distortion pedals and speed, but on intimacy, memory, and reflection.
Set for release June 5th, Borrowed & Blue is less a reinvention than a peeling back of layers. Recorded in her bedroom without a click track, the collection captures the immediacy and imperfections of songs played not for spectacle, but for survival. Across its seven tracks—and one digital bonus cut—Jen Pop reimagines material from throughout her musical life, weaving together new originals, deeply personal covers, and stripped-down reinterpretations of songs from The Bombpops and her 2023 solo album East Side of Eden.
The first single, a haunting rendition of The Mountain Goats’ “Dilaudid,” serves as an ideal introduction to the project’s emotional terrain. Sparse yet emotionally heavy, the recording trades punk urgency for raw vulnerability, allowing the song’s aching weight to fully settle in. Jen herself described the track as one she had long carried with her—“a song that never ceases to elicit a visceral feeling”—and that sense of personal connection permeates the entire release.
The album’s title feels fitting. Borrowed & Blue borrows from the past while existing entirely in the present tense. It is blue not only in mood, but in atmosphere—melancholic without surrendering hope. Produced by Jen Razavi & Simon Short
Engineered, Mixed, & Mastered by Simon Short
Album Design by Jen Razavi and Photography by Simon Short, keeping it very hands-on and passionate. Covers of Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” and NOFX’s “The Idiots Are Taking Over” reveal new shades when filtered through acoustic instrumentation and lived experience, while originals like “Like a Weight” and “CA in July” further establish Jen Pop’s voice as a songwriter unconcerned with genre expectations.
The project arrives after a turbulent stretch of years. In 2020, The Bombpops released Death in Venice Beach through Fat Wreck Chords on the exact day the world seemed to stop turning. Though the timing threatened to bury the record, listeners held on, and the album quietly grew into one of the band’s most beloved works. That momentum carried Jen eastward to Philadelphia, where she worked alongside acclaimed producer Will Yip on East Side of Eden, a deeply personal solo record that intentionally distanced itself from punk convention.
Since then, Jen Pop has embraced acoustic performance almost entirely—playing her own songs, reworking old material, and interpreting the music that shaped her. Those years of intimate live shows laid the groundwork for Borrowed & Blue, a collection that sounds lived-in rather than manufactured.
Yet even as the album reflects inward, it also marks the beginning of another transition. Jen Pop is preparing to leave the United States behind and relocate to Ireland, carrying with her a growing catalog of new material and a creative spirit still searching for its next destination.
For longtime Bombpops fans, Borrowed & Blue may initially seem like a departure. But beneath the quieter instrumentation and slower tempos lies the same emotional honesty that defined her work from the beginning. The urgency remains—it simply arrives now in whispers rather than shouts.
And in an era crowded with overproduced noise, those whispers may prove louder than ever.
