Brat Curse have made one of the best power-pop albums you're going to hear this year. The Dayton band's new one, Brat Curse, drops on Just Because records via Anyway Records on Friday, and it's a blast. The cuts here are economical and concise, and full of exactly the right kind of rock energy.
The wonderfully-titled "Sweat Pants Lawyer" sets the mood here, shards of bristly post-punk embedded in the short tune, while the sprawling "Under The Gun" recalls numbers from fellow Dayton rockers, Connections. Elsewhere, "Spring Break Reagan" is raucous and wonderfully unkempt indie-rock, while the shorter "Who Do You Call?" imagines an odd combo of Guided By Voices and The Grifters. The sound of the group here is delightfully rough, with the four players -- Brian Baker (not *that* one, obviously) on vocals and guitar, Justin Baker on bass, Chris Mengerink on drums, and Joe Carmelengo on lead guitar -- keeping this stuff focused even as it consistently sounds like it's going to go off the rails. While "Blink and It's Gone" is as fast and reckless as that title would suggest, "Who Do You Call?" is one of the few cuts here that takes things down a notch or two to offer up a lovely melody, and evidence that Brat Curse are capable of rocking at more than the highest speed possible.
Brat Curse is out on Friday via Just Because Records via Anyway Records.
More details on Brat Curse via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Anyway Records]