Writing blurbs is typically easy for us because the albums we publish are totally unique, and have little to no precedent for how to speak about them or describe them. But how do you write about new indie guitar pop in 2024? The sheer quantity of previous examples to compare anything new to is staggering - paralyzing, even. Every comparison feels insufficient.

What do you say when someone tells you an album from 2024 sounds like Belle and Sebastian or a C86 band or Women? We could say “The ghost doctor” by sparkling Caleb is a meditation on how My Bloody Valentine and Oasis were both signed to Creation at the same time, but how do we explain the song in 11/4 that kind of sounds like Tori Kudo covering Dave Matthews Band? How do we explain the saxophone solo at the end of Texting? Or anything about Texting? That it sounds like the last two Talk Talk albums if Talk Talk was Codeine and Codeine was Flipper’s Guitar? Should we also mention Duster? See, now everyone reading this thinks we’re lying. And then if we were to tell you that Caleb told us the guitars were inspired by Nick Long and not early Captured Tracks or Tim Kinsella? You don’t even know who Nick Long is!

It’s fair to summarize by saying the specter of 1960s guitar pop as filtered through its 90s and 00s interpreters looms large on the album. And while the instrumental arrangements, vocal harmonies, and squeaky clean guitars certainly have a foot in The Byrds, the vocals are undeniably 2020s. Unlike other punk-turned-pop projects, these vocals are front and center and confident (maybe even a little too confident at parts - maybe we should have sprung for some pitch correction on this one). The vocal melodies have that contemporary, low attention span quality of “every new vocal line has to be a new hook and no verses can have repetition” that's common in billboard pop music and completely alien to underground rock groups. In a different universe, this album is an appropriation of “cool, sunglasses-on rock” aesthetics for the sake of Big Pop interests, except it’s us here at Podunk Label releasing it and not Sony.

I guess this is the part where we hit you with the list of adjectives and hyperbole to truly get you champing at the bit to listen to this album if you haven’t already pressed play or stopped reading. Our friend and collaborator Bryce at @lockedgroove said it “Turns experimental indie rock on its head, with a singular sound that finds middle ground between discordance and lushness.” Our other friends at @155newsletter said “There’s plenty of addicting looseness and even occasional jankiness…but it’s also just a clever and classic album of guitar pop.” We could sum up by saying it’s earnest yet fun, and not afraid to break rules, but also takes itself completely seriously. What else do you expect from someone who only played hardcore and noise for the last decade? Your mileage may vary but there’s only one way to find out.