Winter sucks. I know, there’s no real secret to that, but it is a fact. For any of us that don’t live in Florida, Arizona or southern California, winter is a miserable time where the terrible weather just makes you cranky and angry. In short, you really end up feeling terrible. By this time of the winter, you really need a dose of warm air and something to really cleanse the pallet of the evils of winter. You need a band that’s making some fun, punchy music to get you through this bad time. For 2012, the aptly titled HERE’S TO FEELING GOOD fits the bill.I’ll be honest here. Freshman 15 is never going to be one of those bands that breaks a lot of new ground musically. Even they will admit that isn’t their goal. Instead, this pop punk quartet just records songs that are full of witty, ironic lyrics, punchy rhythms, and hooks that would catch killer whales. HERE’S TO FEELING GOOD is silly at times, yet song after song ends up stuck in your head like bubble gum in a school girl’s hair. Coming off as a fun, less neurotic Green Day meets Bowling For Soup band, Freshman 15 have really recorded a great release with HERE’S TO FEELING GOOD.Without question, the strength of this band lies in the vocals of Davey Fortner. Fortner has a sound that’s all his own; smooth that seemingly comes walks up to a line where it’s tough to tell if it’s being auto-tuned or not, but not in a terribly untalented Chris Brown sort of way. While his voice is strong, and his ability to showcase a great deal of range, the most compelling feature Fortner brings to the sound is his ability to bring real humor to the songs. Listening to songs like “Mistake Ex-Girlfriend”, you just get a good chuckle as Fortner brings you along for the ride.While Fortner is the strongest element of this release, that’s not to say that the rest of the band isn’t solid as well. Guitarist Mike Baker provides strong riffs that power songs like “Getting Weird”. It’s clear from listening to Baker on this album that he’s got some metal background in his past, because his riffs are far crisper than the standard sloppy schlock that dominates so much of the music of this ilk. Baker and Fortner are balanced out nicely by drummer Leo Teran and bassist Davey Hoogerwerf, who provide a very rock-influenced bottom end to songs like first single “Anywhere But Here”.Without question though, the element that separates HERE’S TO FEELING GOOD from most music of this genre is the songwriting. More than just about any band of this style, Freshman 15 write strong songs that, while humorous, don’t let the humor turn each tune into a parody of punk or a silly, useless pop dirge. Almost any song on this album could do well at active rock radio. Songs like “Anywhere But Here” and “Getting Weird” are earmarked as the singles, but there are songs with much more depth for radio play on the disc. Songs like “Come Back For More” could easily become staples at radio and launch this band to the next level.