Sometimes this album reviewing thing is a bit like time travelling. If you close your eyes, you get take back to a place you thought had long since been redeveloped into a shopping mall. Bluesbunny got that kind of feeling when he cranked up the volume on this release from New York's pop punk practitioners Looker.
There is simplicity to these songs. You get the energy of punk but you also get some glitz as well. The vocal harmonies from Boshra Alsaadi and Nicole Greco sound innocent and fresh just like a sixties' girl group. "Disaster" has all the drama of a Shangri-Las single. "Tickle My Spine" likewise sports that sassy attitude. It does not take long either to warm to Robbie Overbey's rock solid New York style drumming. Like all good drummers, you don't really notice he is there but he is right on the beat every time. This band do a nice line in twisted love songs too with "Gregory" being a prime example. That strident guitar in "Last Man" hits the mark too. They might well be conventional songwriters but this band is determined to grab your attention. Guaranteed to have you chanting along. Our pick of the pack was "Radio". This is a song that made us think (fondly) of early Blondie. With simple, uplifting lyrics it sort of summed up what we hope a nice clean living band would want - to hear their song on the radio.
Shadow Morton would have liked this band without a doubt. They manage to sound like angry, discontented teenagers but are far too musically polished for that to be actually true. Whatever way you want to look at it, this ends up as an enjoyable album. Best played loud too, as they say.